Across Time
by MASHfreak77
Summary: One girl goes back in time, to hide. But when she is accidentally mixes up with her grandfather, she may be protecting him instead. A story of friendship, self discovery and love. Chapter 26 has been posted. Please review!
1. Chapter 1

She looked at the contents of the trunk they had given her. It was full of "worn" old army uniforms, dogtags, old records, a recorder, toothbrush, and several other hygene things that were similar to the twenty-first century, but yet not the same. Army money from that time, and a family tree. She looked at the documents they had given her on who she was. Similar to her real life, but not the same.

"You may take two things that prove your from the future." The voice echoed in her head. "Everything else will be given to you or cannot show what time period you are from. You must blend in. Until it is safe to return."

She looked around in room which she had only inhabited a few days now. Inside her bag, she pulled out some pictures by her six-year old niece which she thought was beautiful, she was certain that even then children sent their parents pictures. She withdrew her engagement ring, which she was not suppose to have with her. Her new file said she was single. She put it in her trunk carefully in a hanky. She took her faithful watch with a battery to keep in it. To prove she was from the future? Her ring was no guarentee she was from the future. She took a photograph of her family, and her grandfather's letters to her grandmother. They would not be written where she was going. She looked at them sadly.

It had all been safe once. She had been happily engaged. A normal doctor who's only wish to keep people well, a military doctor. Then by accident with her fiance, they had discover a secret about Al-Qaeda. And now they were being searched for.

They assured her that the terrosists would not be able to go back in time to kill her, not in her own life time. But after that their were no guarentees about how far back the shield would hold. And she couldn't go back to somewhere familiar from her own life time. She had to go to a place she knew a lot about, and was unlikely to mess up her own future.

She was going back to Korea, 1951.


	2. Chapter 2

She swayed slightly as the world came to a stop. She looked around, the place where earlier had been the side of a rather busy street in Tokyo, was now a small street in…Tokyo? This did not resemble the place she just left. _BEEP!_

She jumped to the curb. Evidently the sidewalk no longer extended as far either. Looking around she saw cars, buildings, and people completely different. She looked uncertain for a moment as what to do. Going back and time was not exactly normal.

"Dr. Black?" A middle-aged American stepped from the shadows to introduce himself. He was the contact who she was to meet. She had heard about him, he was the one who volunteered to live back in the forties as a contact, and naturally continued on in to the fifties. She smiled with relief. "I am the one who knows what will happen."

She said the counter password. "And I am the one experience it."

The man smiled. "I knew you'd being coming. They sent me a letter. I didn't know what day, but they told me the approximate date and exact time, so I've been showing up here for a month. You must be cold. It's March twenty-second here, the first day of spring."

She was cold, but it hadn't been as cold as when she left. Back in the future it had been February eleventh when she left. "Well, it wasn't as far off as they told me to expect. So I'm happy."

"Before I take you to HQ, there are some things you need to understand, though I'm sure they drilled you before you left. First, your language, keep out most of your expression from the newer times than here. Second, it is very rare, maybe unheard of to be a woman doctor, so you're going to have to better than good. Lucky for you, the military has been desperate for doctors. Third, try your best not to mess up your future or anyone else's. And that's about all the advice I can give you."

"Well, I think I'm gonna have as much fun as kids making mudpies in their Sunday best."

"That's the spirit."


	3. Chapter 3

She was in a jeep with a corporal next to her, with the biting wind in her face and snow on the ground only beginning to show signs of melting. But for the moment in time she took no notice. She was thinking over her conversation with the one blustering officer at HQ.

"Sir?" A corporal had interrupted her conversation with the colonel, whose name she had already forgotten. He had seemed so unprepared for a female who wasn't nurse and probably had more smarts than he did. He also seemed relieved that the corporal had interrupted their awkward conversation.

"Yes, Sparky, what is it?"

"We got _another _request from four-o-seven-seven MASH for penicillin, micro-well, somethin' or other and rubbing alcohol. Oh, and possibly another doctor. You don't mind me sayin' sir, but four-o-seven-seven does take a lot of the heat, sir."

"Corporal, you tell them they've got a doctor comin' but they'll get their supplies when we get some from the States. Them and every other unit want some too."

The corporal left when she realized something. The 4077, happened to be the MASH unit her grandfather had worked at. She thought. Maybe, possibly. Yes, he did work their. And…so did her fiancée grandfather. This was bad. Or maybe not. No. No it wasn't. Who cares what HQ said? She was going there. She was over fifty years in the past they could not stop her now.

"Me, sir?" She asked.

"yes, you, ummm Doctor?"

"Sarah Black, sir" Honestly, this man was horrible.

"Doctor, are tellin' me you are refusing to go?"

She highly doubted her would make her go. But she thought for a second. She could accidentally alter her future, or accidentally insure that she would never exist. But she deemed that unlikely.

"No, sir, just makin' sure."

The colonel to say the very least, seemed surprised.

But back to the present, or was it the past? Sarah thought time was a mess. Here she was in a truck, with a corporal who had no inclination to talk what so ever. She needed to realize what expressions she needed drop and pick up.

Suddenly, Sarah realized something. She was finally safe, in a sense. At least she knew who the enemy was and where they were. You could walk down the street knowing that the South Koreans who were friendly yesterday, were more than likely to not being blowing you up today. She began to laugh. She was alive! She was going to be okay!

The silent corporal looked at her in surprise, but Sarah didn't care. Her old smart alecky attitude towards life was coming back, her wits, her enjoyment of life was coming back. She felt like her mentally insane self again. Because somewhere in that insanity was where her saneness was.

It didn't matter that she was going back to see people that she had only seen as grandparents and much older people, some had died before she had the chance to meet. It didn't matter that some of their grandchildren or great-grandchildren were her friends, or more. It didn't matter that she was going to see a grandparent that she hadn't seen since his funeral over ten years ago, and never got to say the chance good-bye. There had been so many unasked questions about his life, interests, his dreams, the war…but now she was going to live them.

Whatever happened, she was going to meet it as best she could.


	4. Chapter 4

A telephone rang. A gnarled hand slowly picked it up.

"Hello?"

A crackling made it hard to hear. A finger pushed speakerphone to hear better.

"Hello?"

"Grandpa? This is Ben."

"Ahh...grandson, long time no see." The voice couldn't keep out the gladness and relief to here his grandson's voice once again.

"I know, I'm still in Iraq."

"We're all praying for you. Well, your mother and grandmother are. I just ask God to let you pull through."

"You haven't been drinking more than you one a day, have you?"

"No. That's as much as this old body can handle anymore. Why when I was in the war I-"

"Grandpa, I need a little advice."

There was a silence on the phone for a moment. "Yes? You haven't gotten your fiancee pregnant have you?"

A weak chuckle came over the line. "No, nothing like that. But I need a little advice. Say the one you love is... out in the field, like at the MASH unit you were at in the war. She wanted you to stay here, although it's not a whole lot safer here, but you want to be near her. What would you do?"

There was now an awful long pause. "Well son, I would go after her. It is my experience that she really just wants to make sure she has someone to come home to and for you to keep care of your patients, but I think she really selfishly wants you there. But I don't know. I'm not Breanna Jennifer."

"Grandpa, she likes BJ."

"Yes, I know."

Voices began talking in the backround. "Grandpa, I've got to go. Look, I might not be in touch for a while. Tell Mom, Dad an-"

The line went dead. The grandfather slowly put down the phone as if willing his grandson's voice to come back on.

Later that night, Benjamin Frankling Pierce woke up realizing that he had just encouraged his grandson to go back in time to 1951. And it was to late to change it.


	5. Chapter 5

_AN: I don't ever recall BJ describing what his wife looked like, so don't sue if I get it wrong. As for Sarah working six hours on a kidney, in one episode I watched that what's BJ did. I based this in the seventh season since that's all I've seen up too, and I haven't seen the fourth season. Thanks for the understanding and cc is always welcome. _

_That idiot_, Thought Sarah uncharitably. She knew she would never express her feelings verbally. She was too much like her father and grandfather to do such a thing. She would love to be in a fight, but morals and self-control prevented her from being so rash. Like her grandfather had taught her the one time she was in a fight in the fifth grade, she loved to play practical jokes. Laughter, though sometimes not a complete cure was often a good one of her temper. She would be a peacekeeper as usual, with her mother's occasional streak of nuttiness.

The silent corporal had gotten them in late. The sun was setting, but obviously the MASH 4077 was far from going to sleep. She could hear the racket going on in OR. She looked around. It was hard to believe she was seeing a work MASH. It was really hard to believe that this was it. Just tents, and a metal building, like the ones she had when one of the wings in her school burned down. No one was here to greet her. She shrugged, it didn't matter. But she believed she was needed in the OR.

"Thank you corporal, for that lovely scenic detour we had. I think I now know Korea pretty well now." The corporal gave her a look, but she pulled out her things, set them down next to the main office, taking a deep breath walked in. She washed up in what she was secretly horrified as a rather dirty sink with only soap and no sanitizer. It took a lot of her control not to mention this to the nurse who walked right passed not even noticing she was there.

As she emerged into the operating room she saw four doctors facing away from her. A shorter man whose face she couldn't see was saying to a lone distant short figure, who was going out the door.

"Damnit Radar, where is that doctor you said was comin'?"

"He should have been here hours ago, sir."

That must be Colonel Potter. She walked up to him. "Colonel Potter?"

"Hmmm?"

"I'm Sarah Black, the new doctor you asked for."

"Dear Lord, what else shall I have to bore in this wretched place?"

She turned around. Winchester hadn't changed much in the past fifty years. She ignored him.

"Well, doctor, I'd have Radar show you around, but we're up to our necks in casualties. Excuse the informalities."

"Not a problem. I'll get to work." She went to the empty table where a nurse and a body appeared out of nowhere. She took in the lack of computer and breath support and their anesthesia techniques and took in a deep breath: time to get to work. Condition had been worse. She heard Colonel Potter speaking to her.

"Doctor, let me introduce everyone, or they can introduce themselves. Behind you is Dr. Pierce."

A male voice came through. "Normally called Hawkeye."

She called back. "Normally called Sarah."

"They call me BJ." Sarah almost stopped working. There was a voice she hadn't heard in almost ten years and it hurt so much to hear it. Her grandfather's voice.

"Nice to meet you, I'd turn around but this kid needs at least one kidney." She said trying to keep it light. "Clamp"

"Clamp"

Her nurse seemed familiar too. "Are you going to introduce yourself or do I need to ask? Retractor."

"Retractor. I am Major Margaret Houlihan."

"Sarah Black, supposedly a captain in the army. I'm glad to meet you.."

"Thank you, doctor."

"Please call me, Sarah."

"Sarah, call me Margaret then."

"I am Major Charles Emerson Winchester." Came a Bostonian drawl. "A surgeon for fifteen years, which is probably longer than you have lived, graduate from Harvard University and of course from my beloved Boston."

Sarah smiled. "Well, Charles Emerson Winchester, I am Sarah Black, surgeon, chest cutter, I've been a surgeon for about two years, and I turned down a half scholarship to Harvard for a full ride to Stanford free on a mens' golf scholarship." She was pretty sure that's what her profile said. It was also pretty dang close to the truth.

"You went to school on a scholarship? My how…quaint, and a sports one too. And you gave up Harvard? Were you mad?"

Sarah smiled underneath her mask. "No, just crazy."

"Dear God, another Pierce and Hunnicut."

"Where are you from, Sarah?" BJ asked, ever a peacemaker.

"Columbus, Ohio. Dreadfully hot in the summer and crappy and cold in the winter."

Oops! Sarah noticed her mistake immediately; she was talking to her friends in the twenty-first century, not in the 1950's like she was supposed to be. But she needn't have worried, laughter went around the room. Colonel Potter said, "I think your gonna fit right in with this weather."

"Ohio? Who said Ohio?" A interesting figure appeared, a man in a nurses' outfit. Sarah glanced up. So this what Klinger had looked like all those years ago. Something akin to handsome, and an Ohioan to boot.

"I did"

"Are you the new doctor? I'm Corporal Max Klinger, crazy from head to boot. I deserve a Section eight."

"Klinger, I was crazy enough to give up fifty dollars a week at a floral shop to become a doctor and unfortunately because of my luck got drafted for this war, so we're two peas in a pod. Suction"

"Suction"

"You got drafted? Gee, if you don't mind me saying so, but from this angle you kind of look a like a female." Hawkeye said. Sarah had to keep a tear from slipping as she pulled shrapnel out of the kid's kidney, Ben was so like him.

"Well, I basically got a letter from my congressman saying 'We're desperate and we've heard about you. You've got two weeks."

"Ouch. I got over a month."

"Please don't rub it in. It smarts enough as it is."

For the next six hours she learned about these people, who in her lifetime only really told her the funny stories about the war, and got together about every five years, or at a funeral of one of their buddies dying. She learned about their lives, Margaret's divorce, the crummy food, Klinger's best ways of trying to get a section eight. She reveled in all this. It was all wonderful to hear. And she wanted to know more about them. Though she gave little personal information she asked much about the others. She found her grandfather more of a joker than she ever remembered; Hawkeye was a single flirtatious person, Margaret was very rules regulated. Colonel Potter seemed to be a very fatherly figure, beloved and respected by all. She had never met the colonel before. He had died before she had the chance. But his grandson was right in his footsteps, down to being a colonel. She felt a twinge of sorrow for all the trouble Cory Potter had gone through to get her safe here. Her whole unit, was concerned for her. And she suspected when her two friends had lured her outside to say good-bye someone had snuck stuff into her trunk. She would see where for her many of her friendships began.


	6. Chapter 6

The birds were chirping when she got out of the E- no OR. She reminded herself. Not emergency room, but operating room. Dawn was slowly making itself known. And she felt fatigued. Everything had been like it was in medical school, the instruments, the lack of computers, like in had in her summer job on an Indian reservation that couldn't afford a doctor, worse than in Iraq. She pulled off her smock, cap and undid her face mask, which was cloth instead of throw-aways paper one. She thought wryly that diapers were also cloth in this era. Thank God there were no children to take care of on a military unit in a war-zone. She heard the other doctors come into the dressing room, as she pulled on her jacket. She was still in her Class A uniform. "Hey newbie, how was the first day on the job? You seem to have a lot of experience with meatball surgery." She turned around. Within an instant BJ and Hawkeyes' jaws hit the ground. The colonel and Winchester seem puzzled by their colleagues appearance. She checked herself over to see if she was exposing herself in some way. "Do I have green junk coming out of my ears?" She asked, giving a nervous smile.

BJ snapped to reality when he heard her voice. "I'm sorry, you just look extraordinarily like my wife at home."

Sarah might as well been sinking to the floor. The one thing linked with other mistakes could just be found out. She was a tall, blond with brown eyes, an ovalish face, thin (she had lost a lot of weight in Iraq). The only extreme difference that was noticeable was her hair unlike her grandmother's at the time was not cut short and curled in, her's was in...layers. They didn't have layers back then! She was gonna shoot herself.

Before she could say anything, Winchester put in a stinging remark. "Well, Hunnicut, if your wife is that young, you were rather stealing the cradle, were you not?"

"I am flattered, by your rather insulting remarks, but I must know something. Your appreciation for youth is overwhelming, Charles, but I wonder, does it come from true appreciation for youth today or jealousy?"

The rest of the group laughed, but Charles look highly affronted. "My dear, I think you should know that my father knows Harry Truman."

"And my father knows his congressman by his frequent complaint letters. Your point?"

There was a silence for a moment. "You should have more respect for your elders."

And then he stately walked out of the building. Colonel Potter, "Well, Sarah, I need your files to put them in the filing cabinet, and to prove you are a doctor, but I think you proved that tonight."

Sarah knew a complement when she saw one. "Thank you, its with my trunk that was flung unceremoniously in front of the office last night.

As they walked out, Hawkeye sidled up next to her. In a half whispering tone, he said. "Let's stop all the chit-chat about everyone else, and I want to learn about you. Say tonight at seven o'clock."

Sarah turned her head around. "A little early for personal relationships is it not, Hawkeye?"

"Who said anything about a relationship? I'm just saying we have a private get together tonight-"

"And I'm saying no." For emphasis, she took her engagement ring out of her pocket, and slid it on her finger. "It's pretty is it not?"

Hawkeye look a taken back. But he recovered. "And who is the lucky man?"

"The most wonderful guy in the world."

"Most impressive, Sarah" Colonel Potter said. "You graduated in the top ten percent of your class, from Stanford-"

"Really? Me too!" BJ grinned. "How is the old campus?"

"As full of life as ever."

"Excuse me, Captains, Sarah, is this true, you worked as a medical personnel on an Indian Reservation in New Mexico because they couldn't afford a doctor? During med school? You were going to Stanford!"

"During the summers, Colonel. "

"Oh, I see now. Let's see, you were working at a children's hospital before you came here."

"Yessir"

"Here it says your single."

"That file is wrong, I'm engaged."

"Well, then I offer my fullest congratulations."

"Thank you"

"Well, doctor, I'll have Radar put you on the roster for post-op duty, and if Major Houlihan doesn't mind I think you'll bunk with her. Excuse the colonel, young lady, but according to protocol doctors cannot sleep with nurses, but I think they were thinking of doctors as males, at the time. But if everyone keeps quiet I think you can go in Major Houlihan's tent. Now you might want some shut-eye before our cook serves breakfast between 0700 and 0800."

Hawkeye snickered. "Your gonna need it to swallow this food."


	7. Chapter 7

_A practical joke is a man's best resource for letting go of anger._Her grandfather's voice still lingered in her ears after all this time. She had been ten and gotten in a fight with a boy and had given him a black eye and broken nose. He had been bullying her younger brother and some other third graders, and she unable to control her anger and let it out on him. After get stern talking-to from her parents, her grandfather had sat her down to show her how to let her anger out in a more positive way. _Our tempers are not unlike, Brianna, even as a young man I had problems with anger, especially in the war. But I found that practical jokes and laughter is the best solution into forgetting your anger. I'll show you the basics._

So here she was now almost seventeen years later playing a trick on her grandfather's bunkmate. She was pretty sure they were heavy sleepers. As she crept into the men's room, she was not disproved as she found all of them snoring away. Slowly she set out to work, quickly and silently getting revenge on Charles Emerson Winchester for his taunts earlier. The door creaked on her way out, but she made for the latrines to look as if she had been their all along.

Cory Potter wearily sat down at his make-shift office, to escape the heat. It seemed incredible, that they were only in early March, but the heat could still beat down. For the thousandth time, it seemed, he was having second thoughts about hiding one of his best doctors. It had almost seemed safer to keep her here, and just let the Marines find the man. Lucky for her, it was only one member that sought revenge on her, nobody else it seen her as a threat. But she had seen him, Ben didn't, he had been in the next room helping the patient. Ben, operatives were pretty sure that they really didn't care about him, but if possible without extremes they would kill him, but it was unimportant.

Sending her into the past now seemed risky. But it had always been risky. A young man burst into his office holding a tattered old leather bound book. "Colonel Potter, she's at the 4077 MASH."

The Colonel decided he was getting to old for this. "What's this, Ben?"

"Colonel, this is Charles' grandfather's diary let me borrow to read. He said his grandfather had said he would need it over here. And it has BJ in it. On March twelfth it puts she came in the night before. She's there…with the originals. I want to go to her. She needs help. And besides I'm still could be endanger, and she's three miles from the front, anything could happen while she's there-"

"Quiet!" The colonel thought pensively. "No you are not going for the moment. BJ's a smart girl she can keep the past from changing, if it does. Maybe it was ordained that she go! We don't know how much time travel works, Ben! Think, what would you do if you're there? You've got no papers, you look identical to that Dr. Pierce. AND, your rashness would just get you into trouble.

"It's been two weeks, sir! If I went now-"

"If you went now, she wouldn't be there yet! Just hours after she left, they developed to get you back the exact time, in any year! So, she hasn't even arrived yet. Tell you what, Ben, if things around here get worse, or the threat doesn't let up, I will give you a one day pass. But this means on your best behavior until then. Understand?"

"Yes, sir." Ben smiled inwardly; he knew he'd get to him in the end.

A certain Charles Emerson Winchester was raging in the morning. "I know one of you two cretins did it!"

Evading the rolled up newspaper or magazine in his hand his two bunkmates howled with laughter. It was hilarious to see smeared make-up all over Charles and his fingernails painted. As the he approached them, BJ exclaimed,

"Honest, Charles, it wasn't me."

"Or me!" exclaimed Hawkeye like in a child like protest.

"Then who?" Charles began to swing. "Who else plays immature and childish pranks like yours?"

BJ and Hawkeye looked each other over with suspicion. Each knew they hadn't done it, but the question was if the other or someone else did it. A crowd was starting to form outside, and at its lead was Colonel Potter and his trusty aid Radar. Potter didn't even knock. "What the devil is going on in here?" He demanded.

Taking one look at Hawkeye and BJs' fingers pointing at Charles, and taking a quick glance at Charles he said. "Jumpin' seahorses! Winchester! We already have one loony bucking for a section eight that way!"

This is all it took to set Hawkeye and BJ laughing again, and provoke Margaret and Sarah to walk in. "What's going on?" Margaret asked huffily. "You've roused the whole camp!"

Then she saw Charles face, and also began laughing. Sarah also smiled quietly, and chuckled. It had worked.

"Hunnicut! I know it was you! Confess!" Charles was positively livid now. Sarah found it hilarious.

"Winchester! If Hunnicut said wasn't him, then it wasn't him! We have a new practical joker."

"Is this normal here?" Sarah asked innocently.


	8. Chapter 8

"Is your coffee normally this good?" Sarah winced at the coffee. She made a mental note never to complain again when she got back to the future. She was sitting with most of the officer with the exception of Winchester who was trying to wash off the make-up. She had braved the infamous terrible food, and actually she was thinking for them it was a mental thing. Or maybe breakfast was better than other meals.

"No, today we have sugar. And it's brown instead of black." Hawkeye said back.

"Well, then, I might go back to my previous belief that coffee is for old people." She shot back. The table chuckled. BJ asked, "And how old do you think we are?"

Sarah wished she could say, 'In my memory you were in your seventies,' but instead she did some quick math. "BJ, despite the slight gray, probably from stress, I'd say you are only a few years older than me. So like twenty-eight, or twenty-nine. Colonel Potter, you mentioned you only had about a year left so that would leave you at early sixties. Margaret, you're thirty-six or so, because you've been eighteen years in the service. Father and Hawkeye are a little trickier. Hawkeye, you had enough time to graduate from residency, and be in a general hospital for some time. You're gray and that could be from this war, but I suspect you're getting older than you wish to admit. I'd say you're about Margaret's age, despite what they say about you enticing young nurses fresh from nursing school. And Father, you say so little to me, and much less about yourself I don't know."

Some shocked faces showed her that she had been right on the money. "Do you play poker, Sarah?" Asked Hawkeye. "You're very observant."

_He's probably better than Ben. Poker must run in the family._ She smiled. "A little. Ben taught me, and he unfortunately is very good."

Father Muchaly was pulled out of his train of thought. "Did someone call my name?"

"What's on your mind, Father?" Sarah asked.

"The orphans. They have no heat, and Seoul told it was to dip below zero again." Father said disheartened. "One can only pray for them."

Sarah's mind began to whirl. "How much does it cost for a heater. A good one?"

"Oh, no my child, I could not allow to take such money from you. It's fifty dollar to install one heater."

Sarah smiled and said, "Father, I wasn't just talking about me. I'm thinking like a fundraiser. What do people like to do around here that could bring in money, boost up moral, and is within the realm of possibility?"

"Sell tickets to the nurses' showers?" Hawkeye suggested. Margaret whispered something that sounded like "crude and boorish."

"Hang on a minute. I think the girl's on to something." Colonel Potter said. "What exactly are you thinking, Sarah?"

"I'm thinking of a dance, and if possible a dance competition."


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: I searched the web for what women wore, and the styles. I found that in the fifties they were very conservative and the whole thing was "being a lady." So there were lots of gloves and stuff at formal wear. For a full deal about it read: scroll down and the pink one with straps and high heels is the one I' trying to describe.

Sarah had to admit to herself that her plan sounded brilliant, spur of the moment and it sounded well thought out, but really she had done the same thing in the future for the Iraqis children. Only here, it was going to be harder getting supplies. And she thought it was hard in the future. First, this was formal (or what sounded formal to her) all class A uniforms or civilians formal wear (which she didn't have). There was no question on where to hold it because they had an officer's club. They could easily hold over fifty people in there. And as for decorating the place, Klinger had promised he would look when he went to Seoul, the Colonel was sending him to "acquire supplies." She suspected that meant they were dealing with the black market because of shortage of military supplies. She had made a list for him of what to look for.

It was quite time for Post-OP duty yet, so she sat down on her bunk, cot, or wanna be bed, whatever it was to investigate her foot locker. She knew her friends had put something in it. After pulling out all her daily clothes, and her other things she had packed she found to amazement a lot of things. First was her diary, written in Spanish to keep out nosy busy-bodies; a few records on which she suspected was some of her favorite tunes or something that sounded like fifties music. She surmised that the next item was a recorder. The problem was she had no idea on how it worked. The best thing was next: a beautiful forest green dress. It was fifties style with spaghetti straps, the skirt was a swing skirt, white gloves, and dark green heels. It also included a few pages of women's fashion at the time. She saw the girdle, _Hell no_ she thought. _They will have to kill me first. Hopefully they bought me one big enough that I won't need it. I am going to stick to strapless bras and underwear._

She continued to investigate. And found a false bottom. Inside she found her beloved uniform, not the crappy green they gave her to wear here. And with them she found a three letters. One from her best friend, her fiancé, and one that was written about a dozen years old from her grandfather. She tucked them in her overcoat she would read them after duty.

0o0o0o0o

_Hey girl!_

_Sorry we put in these things when you weren't looking, but we knew you wouldn't take them if you saw us. I hope that smile of yours is back on your face, your face is terrible without it. Just joking…well, sort of. _

_Know that our prayers are with you (well, the chaplain, Cory's and other religious peoples are, I'm just crossing my fingers for you.) and you will always be with us, and we with you. _

_And just because you're engaged doesn't mean you're dead, okay? Remember that any man who isn't blind would love to dance with you…or anything else. Okay, okay, don't break Ben's heart. He loves you to much. Poor guy. _

_Love your best friend,_

_Joan McIntyre_

_Dear Sarah,_

_It's hard to believe you're gone. I already miss you terribly. I keep waking up expecting to see you for lunch, dinner, a picnic or something. I could go on how much I miss you, but I have other things to say and I've got to go to work this morning. _

_Realize, that no matter what happens over there, I will always still love you and I think you are still the one and only…. (Author refrains from invading Sarah's private love letter)_

_My dear Princess,_

_It's hard for this old body to believe you are already seventeen years old. You are full of life and hopes, and dreams for the future. I really wish I could be there for them all, but you and I both know, I might not make it, so I am writing this letter to you. _

_I know you want to be a doctor, and I have left you some money to let you go. Your parents have had one before you go to college, and two more after you. Keep up the family tradition if that's what makes you happy. Realize that its hard work, but in the end it's worth it. _

_You and I have worked hard on controlling your temper, and I think you can manage from here on by yourself. You have all the keys, and I know you know how to use them. Jokes may not be the answer to everything, but it front of insanity if looks pretty good. _

_Take care of your grandma, will you? She's going to need a lot of help after I'm gone. You and her are extraordinarily alike. You may not believe it now, but eventually you will come to understand what I mean. I remember after one special dance, three months into dating, I knew she was the one. But this old man is getting caught in memories._

_I will always be there with you, as long as you remember._

_Love,_

_Grandpa_


	10. Chapter 10

Sarah gave a bit of a shiver. She was next to the river, but away enough from where she told were landmines. There was boulder that she sat on. The ice looked like it had refrozen overnight, looked solid. But she didn't trust it. She was terrified of ice.

0o0o0o0o

"Look at me, Mommy!" An eight-year old squealed. She was on her skates.

"Don't skate to close to the middle!" Her mother waved from the side. She was talking to Ben's mother. She made a face. Ben was so dumb. He didn't want to come skating, and besides he had cooties, or that's what her older brother said, and he was in fifth grade and knew everything. She didn't know why her mommy and daddy had decided to come see old Uncle Hawkeye with Grandpa. Oh, she like Great Uncle Hawkeye good enough, but her parents expected her to spend time with the boy. He didn't even want to play catch! He wanted to play football. He was stupid.

The ice broke. She screamed. She fell through. She was too bundled up to move her legs. It was cold, cold, cold. She was trapped underneath the ice. She couldn't get out. She was afraid.

It might on only been thirty seconds, but to her it was a lifetime. A body splashed in the water. It was pulling her towards a spot where it was light. There was Ben's mommy pulling her mother out, lying prostrate on the ice, with about three people behind her.

0o0o0o0o

She had been mildly claustrophobic after that. Not to where it crippled her, but she preferred outdoors after that more than ever, she took the stairs when possible, and had the seats closest to the front in airplanes. She suspected that her love for golf had developed from the open spaces and long walks. Not that she would ever admit to it. She also had become a good swimmer, and became a life guard.

She was out here because she needed time to think, without fifty million people asking her questions about the dance, patients wanting to know whether they'll be discharged, walk or most painfully live. For the latter, luckily they were all yes.

"Found her, Radar!" She turned around. BJ was hiking his way to her. "Hello," he said.

"Hey" She offered back.

"The whole camp is looking for you." He smiled. "Need some down time?"

She smiled sheepishly. "I guess, I'm just not accustomed to having not private space to think. I like to have about five minutes of alone time, and since the camp pace never seems to stop I just needed to get away. I'll get use to it."

He laughed. "Just like Peg. She liked "de-winding" time as she calls it; even when we were on our honeymoon she said we had to stop at a park on the way just so she could relax from the fast pace."

He looked at her in such a way, that Sarah began to laugh, just so he would stop staring at her. It unnerved her, as if he almost thought she was her grandma. He shook it off and laughed with her until his eye fell on her collarbone.

"What's the necklace?" Sarah looked down. It was her Indian necklace, which was from her grandmother. That she had gotten on her honeymoon, when BJ save an Indian's life. He had promised it would keep three generations safe once from danger. It was a carved bear, which in Pueblo the bear meant healing, and medicine.

She pulled it out thinking fast. "They gave it to me on the Indian reservation. Told me it signified who I was. They were right too. Some of the women who were in labor would be suspicious of me, until they saw the bear, because they didn't live in their town. They calmed down after that. I decided to wear in case I mean another Native American."

The word was lost on him. She said hastily. "Indian, I mean. They call themselves Native Americans so I'm so used to saying that."

"Peg has one like it too. In fact if it wasn't for your hair and knowledge of doctoring I'd think you were her in disguise. But I guess yours is too old."

Somehow Sarah found this very ironic. To get off the topic of her necklace, she asked, "Do you miss her an awful lot?"

BJ looked at her sadly. "Only every moment of every minute, every hour and every day. And I miss my daughter, Erin. I haven't shown you her picture have I?"

He pulled out of his pocket, two pictures, one of her grandma, and one of her aunt. Sarah held carefully as if they were worth gold, which she knew they were to him. "They're beautiful, both of them." She said sincerely.

He smiled like any father at the compliment. "C'mon. They'll think I'm having an affair with you if we don't get back soon enough."

And with that, Sarah truly laughed.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: For all the sick minded people. I mean this as Sarah was doing this for her grandfather. There are no thoughts beyond. So get all your minds out of the gutter.

"God, she reminds me of her." BJ sucked another shot of alcohol into his body. Hawkeye was starting to look uncharacteristically worried. BJ had been drinking with mainly silence with the last hour, in the Officer's Club. He too, had had quite a lot to drink, but not like BJ.

"Beej, maybe you've had enough." Hawkeye slowly started taking away the beer. BJ, seemily not listening to his words grabbed the beer back and continued. "They have the same voice, laugh, she even likes quiet time like Peg does!"

BJ's volume was slowing going from a half-whisper to a near shout. Hawkeye made motion for BJ to keep his voice down. BJ's voice lowered again. "Do you know she even has the same damn necklace Peg does? The only difference is its older, by say fifty years. You know how Peg got that necklace?"

"No"

"We were on our honeymoon and we drove through an Indian Reservation. We stopped, and found out that the chief had been shot by some white person. I did basic surgery to heal his leg. I wasn't expecting payment, but he gave Peg this necklace, trying to say something about the bear mean protection and medicine. Ah, who knows. Said it would keep her, and the first girl of the next two generations safe in their most need of safety. We just laughed, but Peg kept it. Haven't faintest where it is now."

BJ looked blankly at his beer bottle. "There's nothing left in it. Igor! Fill me up another beer!"

"Beej, c'mon lets go back to the Swamp and hit the sack." Hawkeye was starting to look strained.

After shocking downing the beer in record time, BJ weaved a bit. "Why? We're drunk a lot of the time anyway? What does it matter?" In a slightly different tone he repeated. "What does it matter?"

Sarah breathed in a big amount of fresh air. She had been studying the web pages that her best friend had given her about the nineteen fifties. The question big question now was how to work a recorder. She had also burned them in her and Margaret's stove in their room. She was now reconsidering the cutting her hair thing. Maybe shoulder length and then just flip it out, instead of in, like everybody else around here. When Margaret came in she had made in look like she was reading another book. Her friends had also packed her Jane Austen's Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice. Margaret had hit her cot like a sack of potatoes. She assumed that she had gone to the Officer's Club. She looked at her watch, it was eleven thirty. Surprisingly, most of the lights were out. Only the officer's club still had a light on. She decided to investigate and check it out.

She found only B.J. inside. He was stooped over a bottle. He was also in a bathrobe, and was appeared to be pajamas. It was hard to see her grandfather alone like that. Apparently the bartender had also turned in, and the lock like it had been easily jimmied. Obviously, he had eluded his bunk mates and had come back. And she had a possibility come to her as the reason why.

She carefully shook him. "BJ? Are you alright?"

Hazy eyes tried to look up and focus on her. "Peg?" The creature whispered.

For reason unknown to herself, she didn't say no. "BJ, come home to bed. You're exhausted."

He got up and almost fell, but she took his arm around her shoulders. "Sweetheart, where's Erin?"

"At Dad's. You needed some rest. Help me get you to bed." She shied away from saying that she needed him. That would only complicate things.

"Peg, I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you more than you know." In a way she meant it, but not in the way he assumed.

She struggled to get him to the Swamp. Opening the door, she slowly took him in. He said nothing, but clinged to her as if she might disappear. His fellow bunkmates did not awaken. She helped to his cot and pulled the blanket over him. "Peg…" His voice was beseeching. He took her hand.

"Don't leave me. Tell me its not a dream."

She heard herself whispering back. "I won't leave."

She sat down in the rocking chair, and his hand refused to let go of hers. Even after he fell asleep he didn't let go. Soon enough she fell asleep herself.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: The Aggie O'Shay that Hawkeye mentions appears in the eighth season, I think, and BJ has decide between his desires and being faithful to his true love, Peg. Looking for story material incorporate I might mention some things that didn't happen while Radar was there, but just hang w/ me.

BJ's eyes slowly opened revealing light streaming from somewhere. For the briefest moment he opened his eyes expecting to see Peg sleeping beside him, but instead saw his bunkmate Hawkeye Pierce sitting down beside him in the rocking chair. A big sickle grin met him. "Good morning, Sunshine."

The sound hurt his ears. A massive hangover had come. "Ooohhh" He moaned. Hawkeye continued. "Do you know what I found here this morning when I awoke? A certain new blonde doctor sitting in this chair and holding _your_ hand. Now how is it she was here in the chair, and you were not letting her hand go, holding like a life preserver. And I'm the one who asked her, how is it you get Aggie O Shay and-"

BJ's mind took a minute to process things. He jumped up. "What? Are you telling me that Sarah was in here, next to me, and I don't remember any of this? Was she-ah…well, ah….um-"

Hawkeye looked at him. "All she said to me was, 'Do you think you and I can trade places? He won't let go of my hand and I happen to need it.' So I've been here ever since. You let go of my hand, but I decided to figure out what you two did last night. I brought you home last night, but obviously you don't want my company anymore. I think I shall file for a divorce."

"If Peg doesn't get there first. Oh, God" BJ thought furiously trying to remember, pushing his hangover aside.

"Whoa, steady partner," Hawkeye imitated a western accent. "I don't think anything serious happened last night."

"What makes you say that?" BJ desperately wanting an explanation.

"First of all, she wasn't disheveled, embarrassed, second of all, she was completely clothed, third of all, she was in a rocking chair, not next to you, not like there would be space anyway, your cot is almost smaller than mine."

BJ still did not look convinced. Hawkeye sighted. "C'mon let's go to the mess tent. Then you need to go to Post-Op with Charles."

"Wait. Can I trade shifts with you? You have it with Sarah, and I need to ask her."

Hawkeye looked at him for a moment, and finally said. "All right."

0o0o0o0

Sarah had decided that sleeping in chairs was uncomfortable was the understatement of the year. Her whole back hurt and she was feeling pretty tight. She also decided that having discovered that there was more hot water in the morning, when everyone was sleeping from there hangover, she would take showers in the morning, in the nurses showers. She concluded that even though she was a doctor it was best if she used the nurses showers, seeing how there were no other women. She had gotten use to two minute showers or less in Iraq so it seemed a blessing to have a five minute shower or longer if she wanted one.

Slowly she got out of the shower and put on a sports bra. She didn't give a care if they hadn't been invented yet, but they were a lot better than those underwire bras that she had seen in the laundry so far. Besides she wasn't here to impress anyone with her figure. She really didn't want boy trouble. Ben was somewhere fifty years in the future worrying about her.

She had already planned her next trick. There had been 5,000 gloves sent to the camp instead of the five hundred ordered. And the good thing was is they could be blown up as not only balloons, but water balloons. And the normal Wednesday's poker night had been moved to today's Friday night. And she was told this was because Sidney Freedman, who was coming to see one of their patients because yesterday night had started sleepwalking trying to light things on fire. Lucky for Max Klinger, had caught him. Unfortunately it had sent him into shock. But Sidney was staying the night for a poker game. And to bad it would look like BJ's and Hawkeye's fault again.

Sarah was slightly started to see BJ standing outside the nurses shower looking as nervous as a cat.

0o0o0o0

"What do you mean she's disappeared? People just do not disappear in the twinkle of the eye." In the shadows two men spoke quietly as they were surrounded by guards.

"That's what I mean, sir, we haven't seen her since two months ago when it happened sir, and on the base, we have complete surveillance and she has not been heard from since three days ago. It's like she disappeared off the face of the earth."

"Could it be they just confined her to her tent?"

"Sir, she is what the Americans call "top notch surgeon" she would not just disappear. Sir, if I might be so bold, she is no threat to us, why not just-"

"Forget about her? Never! She by seeing me has dishonored me in the eyes of Al-Qaeda. I shall have revenge."

"But sir-"

"But nothing. Remember your duty. And find her. Check the hospital thing, check flights homeward bound. Check her family's home."

"Yes sir."


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: For all those who don't know the Weasly twins are from Harry Potter, and love practical jokes. And since I don't know Kellye first name, hence it has become her first name.

"BJ," Sarah said tiredly. "Nothing happened. I don't understand why you had Hawkeye switch shifts with you. You already caught me outside the shower. I promise, when you get back home I won't show up at your doorstep with a baby in my arms." _Besides, that would absolutely be gross beyond imagination. My own…no it's too twisted to think. _

Despite her reassurances and light jokes, BJ did not look convinced, if only more horrified. Breathing in slowly, as if trying to keep himself from shaking her and her calm. In a slow and deliberate voice he asked, "Could you please tell me everything that happened last night?"

Sarah smiled at her kidney patient from two days before. "You'll be fine, as soon as we ship you out of here to Tokyo." The unconscious man made no response, but neither did she expect him to. She turned around. She glanced at the nurse at the end of Post-OP. "Do you wish to go outside?"

BJ merely walked to the outside of the curtain. His face was expressionless, as she told him simply what happened. "…the last thing you asked me was not to leave. So I didn't. I had planned to after you fell asleep, but I guess I did too. BJ," She impulsively took his hand. "You did nothing wrong. All you did was assume I was Peg. If anyone is the wrong I am, for playing along. I just want you to know I was just trying to convince you to go to bed. You were alone in the bar, and in your pajamas. If Peg loves you as much you love her, you are one lucky man."

0o0o0o

Sarah smiled evilly. Although she had to forgo the water ballon idea because she realized they would become solid ice, she still had a trick up her sleeve. Dr. Freedman had been here for awhile. She had met him briefly, because he came at the end of his shift. He seemed cordial enough. He looked her like an interesting subject later. She would be at the poker game within a little while, and her eye gleamed at was going to happen. _Do you think I could give the Weaslys' twins a run for their money? _She loved Harry Potter. It would have to be one of her favorites.

"Sarah! Sit over here!" Kellye called her over, motioning to sit with the rest of the nurses. With a tray of slop in her hand she readily agreed.

"Hey," She said with an easy smile. "How are you all?" She was careful not to say "guys." It still was a very male term, and not exactly the best one to use.

A distinct amount of pleasant grumblings made Sarah suspect they meant to say "good." Nurse Able gave a giggle leaned over and said conspiringly, "I saw Hawkeye making a move on you, did you fall for it?"

A review of giggles emitted from the table. "I bet he didn't, remember last time he tried to convince a fellow doctor to have a… romantic tryst?" "Are you crazy, this Hawkeye your talking about, of course, he did?" "Let her talk!"

They all looked at Sarah and she smiled. "All I had to do was show him this, and he got the message." She held up her left hand and let a certain ring sparkle. A bunch of "o" went around the table. Able leaned over, and Sarah thought she caught a brief moment of relief in her eye, but then dismissed it and asked, "So who's the lucky man?"

Sarah blushed slightly, and traced her ring with her index finger. "His name is Ben. He proposed 2 months, 3 weeks and 4 days ago."

After exclamations of begging for her to tell all, she started. "Well, Ben is full opposites. He, like me, is a surgeon. We fell in love during medical school, although we had met before. His grandfather and mine, although living far away got together every couple of years with some other buddies and brought us along. I'm told the first time we met when we were two, he tried to kiss me and I slapped him." At this more giggles ensued.

"His sister, became a good friend of mine, I stayed with them, in Maine, for a few weeks one summer. I was eleven then and Ben and I…didn't get along so well. I can't remember all our arguments, but I think it started when I could play baseball better than he could. Somehow though, we became friends by the end of the summer. We kept in touch, occasionally mainly because Susan, my friend, and I were pen pals. But then when I was seventeen my grandfather died. He and I had been very close. My parents thought it best if I got away from C- Ohio. So I went once again to Maine. Well, Ben and I saw more of each other that summer, since Susan had accepted a summer job taking care of this elderly lady. Ben and I both took jobs at the local clinic to help the doctors." Sarah paused wondering if she should continue the last rather private part. "Ben had a before school bash, and he needed a date. We would go just as friends. And we did and I had a splendid time. We agreed that if were ever desperate for a date again, we would call each other."

She didn't mention that at the end of that dance he and she had kissed, making things between them unbalance, but they had laughed and just pushed it aside for the time being. Both had accepted that the distance and their interests laid elsewhere for the time being.

"Contact between his family and mine somewhat diminished after my grandpa died, but we kept writing, oh, about all sort of things. He must of asked me a million questions about what to say to his girlfriends, he was sort of a playboy our senior year. I too, wrote for advice and a confidante outside my own town. It went both ways. We saw each other again when we were both accepted into John Hopkins after college."

"What's this story about?" Hawkeye sat down next to Able, with a gleam in his eye, as he checked her out. He had obviously come over from where he and BJ had been sitting with Colonel Potter. Sarah rolled her eyes in annoyance. Honestly, even Ben wasn't this annoying. Or maybe she was to in love with him to notice. But she didn't think so. Love doesn't make one blind to another's faults, just accept them.

"Sarah's love life." Kellye spoke up. Sarah could tell that she was indignant on her behalf. She felt a rush of warmth for Kellye. She continued, "Well, things began to change for us, I suppose. We did go out as a couple eventually and the rest is history."

_Not really, but close enough. If I want to boil it down to that._ She would tell more if she felt like it later. She had a poker game to attend.

0o0o0o0o

"What do you mean it's missing? Information like that just doesn't disappear!" The president of the United States paced back in forth. "What do you mean its been missing for a while? Don't you think you should have been worrying about it the moment it left your sight? Damn you and your silly I-want-to-preserve-my-title, that information could change the tide of the war. And for it to be on a flash drive and beyond our control could change the tide of the war! You find that soon enough or I swear to you that you will be in the stockade for treason of the United States and whatever else I can dig up on you!"

0o0o0o0o

"Where is that flash drive?" The man panicked. That information could get him back in the good graces of the inner circle. But where was it? Flash drives don't have legs to walk away on.

"_Ben I'm gonna check for more wounded, in the next room. The guy said the room was secure." A young woman walked into a room. He prayed that he would not be found. That she would find the latch that hid him and his companions below the floor. Or, the idea occurred to him. She was unprotected. This would be a good hostage situation. He whispered to his companions what they would do. They burst out from the below the floor. The woman thinking fast hurled herself at him, Forcing him companions to stumble below. He grabbed onto her as she stumbled backward crying for help, she got the upper hand by knocking the gun out of his hand and pulling his neck and something snapped…_

Suddenly, he knew who had it. And suddenly finding her had become a lot more important.

0o0o0o0

Sarah was walking to the Swamp for the poker game, when she saw a man in the darkness with a gun. Klinger was interrogating Hawkeye, BJ, Sidney and Margaret, and not paying attention. The man now was about to aim and fire. Running as fast as she could she shoved them all to the ground like a domino affect as a shot rang out.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Originally there was to be a huge fight between Sarah and the shooter, but I re-read the Code of Conduct and all its exceptions and doctors and priests are not to pick up weapons or take place in combat except in self-defense. They can legally be captured, and held. Don't worry, Sarah will have to break it anyway. But not for a while yet.

The domino affect worked. Like a wave of dominos they all fell to the floor. Sarah seized the fallen rifle of Klinger's, took aim and fired. She ignored Margaret's screams and the shouts of the others who were staying on the floor. As she heard the clunk of metal to metal, she knew that he, like her, would be without a weapon.

"What the hell are you doing?" Demanded Hawkeye, "Have you forgotten the oath you swore to preserve human life, not destroy it?"

"Don't you think I would've aimed a little better if I meant to kill him?" Her voice snapped. She had been so afraid, that it would have been someone else. "I'm not some blundering idiot with a gun. I know how to use one."

She slowly approached the gunman, tense for every movement. What she found was a young Chinese man on the floor. His arm was at the wrong angle and obviously had been fighting before he got here. He sharply spoke to her, in a menacing voice, but she spoke softly. In a whispering tone she said,

"You're hurt. Let me help you. I don't want to hurt you. See I'm unarmed. I'm a doctor." She showed him, the medical sign on her uniform and lifted her palms to show that she was unarmed. "You need help. Your arm, you've got it in a mess. I know your hurt, so just put down the gun and I'll help you."

She got closer to him, speaking in hushed tones, in a way that a mother might speak to a stubborn child refusing to go to bed. The man on the border of unconsciousness seemed to believe that she was all right. She was able to convince him to let her left him, and let him walk to the OR.

0o0o0o0

After setting the man's arm, and facing interrogation from Colonel Potter as she did it, with Radar bothering her every second of the whole time on how brave she was, she was about to settle down in exhaustion. But she had promised to go to a game of poker and so she was going. With about fifty dollars in her pocket (she figured that at this time, fifty dollars was a lot of money) she headed over to the Swamp. She walked in and she was surprised. She had forgotten completely about the joke she had been planning, and obviously worked. Five massive balloons made out of rubber gloves had fallen when they opened the door and got that person completely purple. And it happened to be Charles. He had obviously tried to get the dye off, but it wasn't working. Every time Hawkeye and BJ looked over at him they started howling again.

"Colonel Potter, I demand you do something immediately!" the enraged Bostonian said.

"The boys said they didn't do it, and even Sidney says he doesn't think they're lying, so what do want me to do?" The annoyed colonel asked.

Winchester in one of the few times of his life did not know what to say in response to this simple question.

"How about we string them by their toes until they give us a straight answer without laughing?" She walked in, and Hawkeye, BJ, Margaret, Klinger and Sidney got up.

Margaret came up and hugged her. "We owe you our lives. That was truly brave of you to run up to us, and shove us to the ground like that, and then turn around and fire Klinger's rifle."

"May you days be full of good dates and free of camel spit." Klinger said.

"شكرا" _Thank you_. Sarah responded smiling. She laughed at Klinger's astonished face.

"You know Arabic!" Klinger said surprised. _Unfortunately_. She smiled. "Very little and very poorly."

BJ stepped forward. "Thank you."

He didn't have to say anything. Sarah, like him, didn't have to say a whole lot to explain how he felt. They just knew. Those two words was all she needed to hear from him. She wished she could hear the love in them, or the protectiveness of a grandfather, but it wasn't there and wouldn't be there for over thirty years until she was (or was it had been?) a child. She forced herself to smile back, although tears threatened. She blinked them back.

Sidney was next. "You interesting person, Sarah. And thanks for the life-saving. May I psycho-analize you before I leave?"

She laughed. "Is there something wrong with me? Believe me, shoving you guys to the ground is unusual."

"No, but courage like that is also so." Dr. Freedman looked at her searchingly as if trying to find the truth behind her.

Hawkeye came forward. "I suppose I have an apology to make."

Sarah shook her head. "No, I would have done the same. Don't look apologetic. It doesn't suit you." She laughed to let him know she was teasing.

"No seriously, you all, you make it all sound so heroic, but in reality, I just did first instinct. There's nothing great about it. Deal me in."

0o0o0o0o0o

After some time of observing, Sidney took his eyes of his cards and said in a casual manner:

"You're an interesting character, Sarah."

He watched her expression and thought he saw for the most fleetest of moment a look of vulnerability, that he thought he imagined it, for it was soon replaced by amusement.

"Really? Do tell me your diagnosis." Sarah said smiling, tossing a few chips into the pot. "I'm in."

"You are on the outside, cool, self-controlled, joking, and good-humored." He paused to see her reaction. "But on the inside, I think you are a rebel."

That one brought down the house. Sarah started choking with laughter. She laughed very hard. He felt slightly embarrassed. Most people when they heard his diagnosis, simply seemed very shocked that he could see though them, but he reasoned to himself that it wasn't hard to see, all you had to do was look. Sarah seemed to realize no one else was laughing and she became very quiet. She said slowly as if trying to keep back laughter, "Could you please be more explicit?"

Sidney replied. "I noticed how you handled saving our lives. That was impulsive, and passion for us to live. Then you saved the soldier that tried to kill us, instantly recognizing that he was delirious and needed to be bandaged, fed, and taken care of. You also have a temper, though someone must've taught you to control it, and I have a strong suspicion that you are the new practical joker."

For a moment there was a burst of sounds. An outraged Charles made some sort of strangling noise, gasps from Margaret, denial from Radar, shock from the Swamp bunkies, but Sarah simply smiled, got up did a sweeping bow, and said, "Guilty as charged."

There was a moment of silence until Charles said, "This means war."


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: What Hawkeye does may seem a little off character, but I always felt that for Hawkeye, letting go was a key of moving forward. And this is a long one b/c I wanted to get to the dance by next chapter.

"Hey, kid. How are doin'?" She sat on the stool next to the kid. He had bandages around the middle where she had found enormous amounts of shrapnel. "I'm sure you feel better without all that metal in your body, unless they gave you food here." She smiled at the sound of the young man laughing. "You gave us quite a scare with that spiking temperature of yours."

"Thanks ma'am, but I was wondering if you could do something for me." The young man looked anxious.

"As long as it isn't for better food, even I have tried demanding for it, and so far it hasn't worked." She smiled. "What is it?"

"The boys and I have been wondering if you have any records, or instruments while we're here, it's kind of boring in here just lying in here." The boy looked rather embarrassed.

"Well, I can't make any promises, but I'll see if the old man will let me bring a record played or play something on the intercom for you guys. Any special request?"

"Well, most of us really like jazz and Sean really likes the blues." He said pointing over to his bunkmate. "And ma'am?"

"Yes?"

"I don't want to be a bother, but is the doc gonna ever come see me? I mean he's seen a lot of the patients, but some of us never have seen him. We've only seen you and the other nurses."

"You're lookin' at the doc, kid" The kid's face was priceless.

0o0o0o0o

It was a little girl, whose face was half covered with bandages. Sarah could tell she was afraid. Slowly sitting down she said softly, "Hi, young lady. I'm sorry you're in such a mess, but I think you'll pull out fine."

She smiled. "You know, I have a little niece at home about your age. I'm guessing you are seven, right?" She tucked the little girl in. The girl's big eyes just stared at her. Sarah pulled out a yarn doll. "I asked BJ for some yarn, and then with a bit of old uniform fragments that Margaret gave me. She's the other nice blonde lady that comes around. You'll have to excuse her; she's not exactly sure how to handle children. She hasn't ever seen her nephew yet, but she will after this terrible war is over." She held out the doll for the little girl to see. Tentatively the girl took it. And then once in her hand, she it took and put it possessively next to her heart. The girl slowly put her hand in Sarah's. Sarah smiled.

"How about a story? My grandfather use to tell me this one, when I was your age. Once, there was a beautiful princess, with long blonde hair. She had a beautiful smile, was quiet, reserved, and always loving. One day, when she was old enough she somehow fell in love with the prince of the neighboring kingdom. They had been friends since childhood, but somehow the friendship changed into love. He was a raven-haired dashing prince who had swept her off her feet. They were planning to become married. Then, something dreadful happened."

Sarah didn't notice, but it wasn't only her young attentive listener who was listening. It seemed that all were drawn to her voice. She was what they called a storyteller. She could spin yarns miles long, and everyone would have still listened. "A plot was discovered against her. The prince concerned for her, and wanted to defend her, knew that he needed to hide her, giving him time to find the evil men. In the far stretches of his kingdom, he sent her to be a commoner in that far off land. She became a cook for a baronet. Everyday she made friends and discovered what she could do for herself. She gained confidence she never knew before. But she missed her prince dearly. Sometimes, he would come in pretense of being someone else just to spend a few measly hours with her. Meanwhile he searched high and low for those who wanted to kill his true love."

"One day they appeared, the bad men. The princess was terrified. They were looking for her, between everyone else. When she heard from her friends, the birds that they were near she first planned to run. Then she realized that they wouldn't just hurt her anymore. She had learned something from those people. It was to make a stand." She paused. She couldn't honestly remember what happened after that. "You know what? I can't honestly remember what happens after that point. Tell you what. I'll think about it, and you just wait here."

She gave a small smile to the girl, squeezed her hand and went on. She failed to realize all the rest of her disappointed listeners. She moved on to the next bed where she could hear Hawkeye whispering to another nurse just leaving off duty, Sarah and Hawkeye had to wait for their replacements. "How about you and I instead of going to the movies, have a rendezvous at my tent later, say seven o'clock?" And Able's coy reply, "Make it seven-thirty," and then placing her finger tips to his mouth, then walking away.

While reading a clipboard as Hawkeye walked by, she said clearly. "You're not going to find her, at least not that way."

Hawkeye stopped. For a moment in time, he seemed serious. "Find who?"

She shrugged. "Whoever you're trying to replace"

"What do you mean?" At that moment Winchester and Margaret appeared on the scene.

"Ah, my replacements"

"Ah, Sarah?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you, for that lovely, ahh… apparel. It fits your degenerate self." Sarah smiled broadly. "Thank you."

"Captain Black!" A giant nose came into Sarah's face. "The phone has been ringing like mad! The guests will all be here tomorrow 1900 hours. You're really gonna pull it off, Captain!"

"Thanks, Max" Klinger had asked her to call him Max within the week she was here. Oh, yes, it had been a week now. She had gotten on her hands and knees with all the nurses, and enlisted to clean the whole entire Officer's Club from top to bottom.

"Captain, may I see you outside?" Hawkeye's impatience cut through the atmosphere like a knife.

"As long as you don't plan to woo me behind the water tank." Seeing everybody laugh, she stepped outside. Hawkeye was upset.

"What the hell did you mean by that remark?" Hawkeye demanded.

"Do you always get this upset when someone asks you about your feelings?"

"What do you know about my feelings? What do you know about anything? You've only been here a week and you act like you know everything?"

Sarah was taken aback, but she kept her face impassive. "My only remark, Hawkeye, is that you won't find whoever you're looking for that way. What I mean is Hawkeye, whoever you're trying to replace, your mother, some past love, I don't know Hawkeye, but finding some pretty face that looks like her, or trying to fill the gap by one-night stands. But it's none of my business what you do. Excuse me for trying to help you." She turned to leave.

"Hey, wait a minute." She turned back around. "Do you got a while to talk?"

"C'mon. I'll buy you coffee."

0o0o0o0o0o0

A dusty-raven haired man stepped out of a truck. "Corporal, next time I wish to see the country side of Korea, I will ask a limo driver. At least the ride is smoother." The man got out, as the cold wind blew against him. Walking into the clerk's office he saw no one. As he walked into the office, he saw an elderly man he had only heard about behind the desk.

"Colonel Potter?" He asked.

"What is it hotshot? That stunt you pulled last night, with Winchester against Sarah and Margaret was pretty stupid."

"Sir let me introduce myself. I am Captain Benjamin Tuttle. I'm on leave and here to see my fiancée. I understand she is here at the 4077th. Her name is-"

"Sarah Black" The old man smiled. He stood up and shook the Captain's hand. "Yeah, we all know who she is son. I'm sorry for mistaking you for one of our surgeons here. You and he look a mighty a lot alike."

"Hey, Colonel," Charles, BJ and Hawkeye walked into the room. Ben turned around. "Holy-" But he checked himself in time.

"Boys this man is Sarah's fiancé, Captain Tuttle. He's on leave and wanted to see her. Ben this is our chief surgeon, Hawkeye Pierce."

"I always knew I had an identical twin. Call me Ben." Ben shook his hand, and felt rather odd, as if he was shaking his own. "Is it Hawkeye like 'Last of the Mohicans,' Hawkeye?"

"Give the man a cigar, that's it!" Hawkeye warmly shook his hand. He felt like he was going to like this man, except the name Tuttle. "Captain Benjamin Tuttle, did you say? I knew a Tuttle once. Did you know a Jonathan S. Tuttle?"

"As a matter a fact, I did. He was my third cousin; he died about a year ago." Ben's eye twinkled, he knew the real story.

Colonel Potter interrupted. "And this is Captain BJ Hunnicutt." As Ben extended out his hand again, he felt like adding "sir" onto the "nice to meet you," he had always called Dr. Hunnicutt in the future sir. "And this is-"

"Major Charles Emerson Winchester the third." Winchester stuck out his hand. "From where do you hail? In which I mean, where were you educated?"

"Sarah and I both went to John Hopkins medical school together."

"Ah, I knew I saw a man of quality, when I see one." Winchester shook his hand more earnestly. Ben mentally shook his head. Winchester never changed. "Now do you, my good fellow, like an occasional harmless joke?"

Ben's eye gleamed. "On my fiancée?"

Hawkeye cut in, "Charles if you're thinking what I'm thinking…" An evil laugh filled the room.

0o0o0o0o0

Sarah was trying to keep the fire in Margaret's and her tent. It was cold and Margaret was typing some sort of letter. It was annoying to the click-clack of a typewriter. At first she had been curious, having never seen a type writer like that before, but the novelty soon wore off. And the books by Jane Austen were beginning to bore. She couldn't understand how Anne from Persuasion, could have so little backbone. It was frustrating to read. She liked Elizabeth Bennett so much better.

She closed the book. She pulled out her diary and began writing. She paused as she came to the part of her day when she had talked with Hawkeye, about the girl, Carlye Breslin. She could tell this had been coming on for a while. An outpour of feelings came out about her. About how he had loved her, then hated, and then broke his heart all over again; all she did was listen. She barely said a whole sentence, except to the very end.

_"Well, the doctor's going to order you something, Hawkeye." She looked intently at him. She pulled out an object, a friendship bracelet that had yet to be worn. "I can't make you do it, but it's a suggestion. She tied it on his wrist. "Every time you look at this bracelet think of her. Think everything, the love, the hate, the remorse, whatever you feel. Then when you feel like you can let go snip it off, but when you take it off you have to let go. No more regrets, nothing, the feelings have to be impassive. Don't expect it to be tomorrow, next week or even next month. You'll know when you're ready." _

Whether she had done right or not, she had no freaking idea. In fact, it occurred to her since then that she may have screwed up Ben's future, but she deemed that as unlikely. A knock came on the door of the tent. "Come in" She called.

BJ came in, as did Charles. "Excuse us Margaret, may we take this person out of your presence?"

Without another word they came and picked Sarah up. "Let go!" She shrieked, and laughing. "Charles! Now this is unfair! Let me go! BJ!"

Margaret only laughed and waved. "Bye Sarah"

"Ahh! Let me go!" She beat Charles.

"You're only making this harder on yourself you know." Charles said. "A little retribution never hurt anybody." He held her wrist as BJ let go of her feet to tie a blindfold around her eyes, tightly. It was effective.

Now blinded she had no choice but to be picked up, despite all protests, and yelling and trying to beat her captors. She figured she was in the swamp when it got much warmer all of a sudden. She was put down. "Now what's the big idea?" She was about to take off the blindfold when two voices said in unison. "Hey, Sarah"

Her heart plummeted to the ground. "Ben!" She hurried to take off the blindfold when a pair of hands caught her wrists. "Your fiancée, here, says that you could tell him apart from any other in your sleep. Well we can't have you sleeping, so I" A moments pause here, so the egotistical one could flatter himself. "came up with an idea no less than brilliant, of course,"

Sarah snorted along with others here. "That without asking any personal questions you need to be able to identify which one is your…ahem…intended."

Sarah smiled. "This is a sick, cruel joke. Let me guess; is Hawkeye in on this one?"

"Yes" Two men answered again in unison. _Two can play this game._ "Lead me to mystery man number one." Gently led to a man, Sarah took his hand in hers. She looked up, even thought she couldn't see him, Her arms slid up to his shoulder, and one went up to his face. She leaned in and kissed him, deeply. She ignored the dog whistles behind her. She focused on how the mystery man responded to her.

After a few moments she stepped back. "Where is mystery man number two?" Almost instantly another man appeared. Just like before she kissed him. Then after about ten seconds, she gently pushed away, straightening up. "Hey, Ben"

She pulled off the blindfold. Sure enough, staring straight back at her was Ben. "Hey, sweetheart, been kissing a few guys while I wasn't looking?"

"Only to perfect my art of kissing. Jealous?" She gave back a teasing grin. She turned around. "You seriously think you could stump me, Charles? You have a lot to learn. Oh, and Hawkeye? You're not a bad kisser."

0o0o0o0o0o0o

It was incredible. They were like teenagers again, but then not. They were flirting, but restrained themselves in front of public. Sarah had lit up like a firefly. Hawkeye hadn't thought it possible, she lost the mask of being reserved and quiet. Now, she was loud and just flat out crazy.

With Ben Tuttle looking so much like him, it gave him the oddest feeling as if he was watching what he could be a part of, as if he could have been part of that budding family.

0o0o0o0o0o

They never let go of each other, BJ noticed. Always some part of them is touching. Was he like that with Peg? As they repeated their story of how they met countless times through dinner, as well as their trials and errors together, their hands were together, fingers intertwined. Sarah was all smiles, as she explained what she and the 4077 were planning for tomorrow. And wouldn't you know it, Ben was going to be here long enough, because he had came down from Tokyo early, just to see her. BJ suspected that Ben had somehow got wind of what was happening, it was more than circumstantial that he appeared at exactly the right time.

BJ was concerned for his best friend. He had been unusually quiet throughout the whole meal, simply gazing at the two of them. He had nudged Hawkeye once to ask if he was okay, and Hawkeye gave an unconvincing yes.

0o0o0o0o

She was happy to receive anything, Charles noticed. When he had pulled out gifts for her from home, she had laughed with delight. Every trinket was a golden treasure chest to her it seemed, perhaps because it came from him. Although on the outside he gave a comment about the revolting scene before him of human affection. She had been so happy to receive a few new recordings, a recorded message from her aunt, and her best friend, pictures hand drawn from her niece. Charles had ridiculed them, but secretly wished that he had a niece who would send him such things. She had received a dozen quilts from the quilting society and she immediately put them on the woundeds' bed so that they may be warm. Charles protested that they should be for the officer's but she gave him a severe look that made him almost quiver.

0o0o0o0

Klinger blessed Ben, saying that may all his camels be spit free, and was delighted to hear that the too, also knew some Arabic. He admired his uncanny winning streaks like Hawkeye at poker at the Officers' Club. He also found out that Sarah was an accomplished dancer, and Ben was alright. Together as the waltzed around the floor, they looked like one instead of two, and the dance transformed into something as meaningful as a lovers' embrace. They had saying that it was their song, and so they had played it.

L- is for the way you look at me

O- is for the only one I see

V- is very, very extra ordinary

E- is even more than you adore is love

They waltzed one song before sitting down again, to the applause of the audience.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: There are a lot of lines I cannot take credit for. Romeo is an obvious one. It said in countless movies, a simile from Shakesphere's play, "lightness of foot" is from Disney's Pride and Prejudice, Radar was a DJ when the doctors were working around the clock in one episode, Nurse Kellye and being a great dancer, and not being recognized in from Season 11, the only episode I've seen from that season. Happy Together is a sixties song, recently sang by David Cook on American Idol. I'm sure there are more than are a lot a like or similar lines that haven't even crossed my mind on where they come from, but I do not lay claim to any. If MASH belonged to me I would be a millionaire. For those who don't know military customs most family tours are three years. As for the dancing, if you've ever seen really good tango you'll know what I mean.

She was beautiful. She had pulled her hair into an elegant bun, and she proudly wore silver hoops big enough to be a gypsy's. Her necklace, also silver, had on a simple ornament on it. It felt odd to wear gloves, other than for the weather being cold, but as a fashion, but she donned them with little hesitance. Her green dress, reminding her of cut green grass underneath the shade on a golf course, was the one her friends had snuck in her foot locker. Her heels made her at least two inches taller, making herself feel every inch a lady. Lip gloss was all she wore, and secretly smiled because it was Ben's favorite kind.

The nurses, Margaret and she were helping each other get ready. After she had ascertained that men could do no great damage to what she had almost perfected, she left her companions. For the past three hours she had helped other primp, wash, tighten their girdles, giggle, and go absolutely school-girlish. Margaret had finally marched her to their tent and told her to get ready for her own ball. "What's a ball without a hostess?"

There was knock on the door. "Come in" she called. A handsome young man entered the room, in class-A uniforms. A face lit up to see her, and strode across the room to see her. "Turn around." He instructed. Slowly she turned around in a circle.

"Beautiful," He took her into his arms. Whispering, "I'd almost believe you were from the nineteen fifties, a revolutionary doctor, Sarah Black, but I see my twenty-first century, BJ's personality shining though. No girl from the fifties could have pulled this off." He leaned in for a kiss, and received a nice one in return. "Promise me something?" He whispered something between kisses.

"What does it include?" BJ pulled away far enough to look him the eyes.

"_Dance_ tonight." He looked at her seriously. "Not like last night. I kept waiting for you to let go, but you were all stiff, and you didn't…connect to me."

BJ knew what he was trying to say. When she danced it was like she the music was in her veins. She forgot where she was and her and her partner were the only two people in the world. With Ben she felt like they were no two soul mates, but one. It was hard to explain. Trying to smile, "Well, then I better find a new dance partner."

Ben laughed. "I saw Margaret she looked very pretty. I think I shall ask her to dance. I bet she dances wonderfully."

"Charles has told me many, many times that he was been complimented on his lightness of foot."

"Well then I suppose we don't have to dance with each other at all."

"I suppose not"

In a sweeping and theatrical bow, "Is m'lady ready to go to the ball?"

"C'mon Romeo."

0o0o0o0o

Sarah was a wonderful hostess, BJ noted. She had gracefully welcomed all their guests, from their "stage," which was really a platform that happened to be elevated from everything else, perhaps a six inches of the ground. During dinner, she had tactfully kept Hawkeye and him away from generals and higher ranking officers, more for Hawkeye's benefit that anyone else's as the they all sat together, and Margaret. The doctors from the evacuation hospitals, MASHs, sat together. Her fiancé didn't leave her side either. They held hands on the table all the way through dinner, and talked about their plans. After a while they came and talked to the doctors, saying that stuffy old generals weren't their type.

When the tables were cleared the "DJ" started to play the music. Radar was very adept at this. Despite it being below forty degrees out side, he wore a Hawaiian t-shirt with shades; although Sarah had pointed out that they were both inside. Eventually, Radar came to recognize this and took them off. The bar opened, and a dance floor appeared. BJ did not ask any nurse to dance with him. He was thousands of miles away in another time at another dance where he and a certain blonde clad in a white gown danced the night away, feeling like the world was theirs.

"Hello, BJ" Sarah appeared in front of him. "Are you going to lean against that bar all night with a beer in your hand with your thought 10.000 miles away?" BJ was surprised. He had always held the belief that he could hide his emotions very well, but there were always a few that seemed they read him like an open book. He watched Sarah as she came slightly more serious, "I know I'm not Peg, but will I do for a dance?"

BJ tilted his head for a moment trying to gauge what she was trying to say, but then accepted her waiting arms and led her off in a waltz. He did not pull her in closer to him, nor did she make any move that she wanted to. Trying to keep his emotions at bay he remarked lightly, "You dance better than Peg does."

"Hopefully that's a compliment." Sarah smiled. Realizing how it must have sounded BJ tried to correct his mistake. Sarah simply shook her head, "I know what you mean BJ. Thank you."

Something struck BJ. "Say, shouldn't you be dancing away with the man of your dreams right now?"

"He's dancing with Nurse Kellye. I told him too. Seems like she's being ignored compared to all the other girls. It's a shame she's a lovely girl and a great dancer. And pretty."

"Is this your way of telling me that I should ask her to dance?"

"No, I pride myself on being a little more direct than that, but if you take it as a hint, then do so. But it was more of get off your moping butt and have a little clean fun. Peg would want you to."

0o0o0o0o0o

"Attention folks, its time for our dance competition. This is how it works: the couples on the dance floor will go through a series of different dances, waltz, foxtrot, rumba, and yes folks even the tango. Now, if you get tapped on a shoulder by one of our judges you are out and will be asked to sit down. And before I forget the prize for this evening little competition is a 10 day pass to Tokyo with your partner at a four star hotel!"

Cheers went up across the room especially from the doctors. Hawkeye was gun-ho about this one. Abel was one of many women he danced with that night, but he asked her to dance with competition. He was more interested in the trip to Tokyo and beating Charles at this point then really anything else. The yellow bracelet was still around his wrist, he still couldn't look at it without pain. He kept reminding himself that it only had been less than two days since it was donned.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Klinger who was their announcer that night, thankfully in a tux, probably because Colonel Potter had threatened him to within an inch of his life, was moving quickly towards Sarah, who was with Ben and had been moving to the dance floor. She nodded and she and Ben disappeared off the floor and out into the night.

0o0o0o0o

"Damn, kid, stop bleeding." Ben knew as well as the next person that swearing at an unconscious kid was not going to make him stop bleeding.

"Ben, keep cool."

"He shouldn't have to deal with this. He was drafted, he probably doesn't even want be here. He's no more than eighteen years old. I wasn't even positive I wanted to be a doctor at eighteen. He's probably got a girl back home waiting for him, and here he is bleeding like there is no tomorrow, ten thousand miles away from home. He even isn't in a proper hospital with equipment. And when we patch up we send him back to die."

"It's no different than at home, Ben." But she knew it was.

"How can you say that? They want to be there, there is no draft. No letter that comes to your house. They are there for one reason. To defend there country, in a pointless war. Just like this one."

"Funny, how you and I are both in that man's army." BJ said. "Don't lie to me, Benjamin; you and I both know that we just didn't join the army so we didn't have to pay the medical school. It's not that we wanted to see Europe, Japan, be stationed around the world, like all the other people we've met. To have our kids be accustomed to other cultures, away from gangs', go to government schools, and understand how fortunate we are. I only had a glimpse of that. And you never did." BJ's father had been an engineer, and once had accepted a job overseas in Zaragoza before the base closed in the mid-nineties. While she was there she learned to speak Spanish and learned more about world cultures. She lived there for three years. "We may not believe in fighting this war, but I have the idea the moment your future is threatened you will go running out there like any patriot."

"And you won't? If I'm a sentimental fool, then so are you BJ." He smiled. "And you know it."

She didn't have to reply. They both knew it was true.

0o0o0o

They returned. They had missed the competition, but when she found Hawkeye and Abel holding a trophy she got the idea of what she had missed. She wondered if her talk to Hawkeye meant anything to him. Had she just wasted words on the heedless? She mentally shrugged. It was his own unhappiness.

"Attention, ladies and gentlemen. There is one special song left before the dance is over. This song is from Captain Benjamin Tuttle to his fiancée Sarah Black. Take it away captain."

Imagine me and you I do

I think about you day and night

It's only right

To think about the girl you love

And hold her tight

So happy together

The music was calling to her as she leaned into Ben. He looked into her eyes, as if waiting for her. The music was about to pick up after the first stanza. Consequences filled her head. She could be the slut of the MASH unit if she did this. But he had found and burned the record of David Cook singing it. She was hooked. She sought his eyes. She let go. She let the music fill her. She and Ben united to dance together.

If I should call you up invest a dime

And you say you belong to me

And ease my mind

Imagine how the world could be

So very fine

So happy together

Hawkeye had never heard this song, or such a beat, and he wasn't sure what exactly sort of dance routine they were doing to it, but it closely resembled the tango. They seemed to become the music, and their dance was more meaningful than a lover's embrace, and Hawkeye sensed that they couldn't see anyone else but each other. Passion seemed to radiate off them as Ben twisted Sarah closer to him and for a split second their lips almost touch, and as if it took every effort in this universe, he twirled her out again making it look like they had been painfully torn.

I can see me lovin' nobody but you

For all my life

When you're with me baby the skies'll be blue

For all my life

"Wow." That's all that crossed Radar's mind. It looked like they were meant to be. They danced like there was no tomorrow. Radar in his very limited experience in love, was pretty sure this was it.

Me and you and you and me

No matter how they toss the dice

It had to be

The only one for me is you

And you for me

So happy together

Charles was impressed. They were almost good enough to be at a Bostonian dancing league.

So happy together

So happy together

BJ when the applauses and the whistles started after Ben had put pulled her into a big movie kiss as a finale, she came back into reality. Her name was Sarah Black. She was a doctor in the Korean War. She had just very heatedly danced in front of people from the fifties. Dear Lord, she might be in a whole lot of trouble. But as the applause became thunderous, she had a suspicion she was not.

0o0o0o0o0

They talked, and talked. They spoke far into the night of their plans, of how things were at home, how it was to be among one's grandparents, how long they were to hide, when they would see each other again, and of course about their love.

"Will you forget me with all this male attention going around?" Ben nuzzled her neck. To a casual observer it was just two love birds teasing each other while sitting up next to each other. To BJ, she could tell the undercurrent of worries form beneath. Taking his hand into hers she pressed it next to her heart. "It only beats for you."

0o0o0o0o

They were the only ones up at sunrise. She was still in her green gown from the night before, and he in his fatigues with his foot locker in the jeep next to a surly enlisted man. Tears were threatening, and eventually still over spilled.

"Hey," Ben said softly, one hand caressing her cheek. "No tears. I'm only forty miles away at an evacuation hospital. I will be fine."

"Promise me you will be back." She needed to hear those words.

"Always, I love you."

"I love you too."


	17. Chapter 17

She was the blonde princess

A/N: This stars from about more than a month from when I last let the story take place. Again, I have taken advantage of military rules and regulations and twisted them to meet my own needs. And if you feel that the characters are becoming a little off character please let me know. Also I know that Abel is probably very different, but my only excuse is I've only seen up to season 9, and have only heard smatterings of the ending, and since Abel appears very little except as a romantic tryst w/ Hawkeye excuse me for taking liberties with her personality. Also the Arabic is written like Arabic, so it's right to left, not left to right. Also it was put through google translator. So if its wrong, I'm sorry.

"I don't understand, Hawkeye." Abel said with an almost whiny pitch in her voice. "You've always have wanted to do it before."

She put her hand of his chest, only separated from the skin by a mere t-shirt. She kissed him, and looked up at him coyly. "Usually you are chomping at the bit. C'mon, it will be fun."

Hawkeye visibly sighed, and almost looked defeated. He gently removed her hand from his chest and took the other one into his hands. "Look," he said, "it's not about you, it's me. I just don't feel like romance and fun tonight."

Abel was just starting to get annoyed, when she noticed a yellow bracelet on his wrist. She grabbed his arm. "You're still wearing this? You wore this while we were in Tokyo too. I gave you space then, because you asked for it, and you ordered a different room. You said it was only temporary. Now a month later and you still won't be moved by anyone. As far as I know, you haven't done anything with any of nurses, and have been spending most of your nights with the other doctors. What is it, Hawkeye? Are we not enough for you anymore?"

Then a lightening bolt hit her. "Does this bracelet, which is ragged, dirty; carrying God-knows how many germs belong to some girl? Some sort of promise to someone? Or wait, Sarah makes bracelets like these; I've seen her make them. She gives them sometimes to the troops that past through here, some sort of crap about how they will know someone is always with them. Is she now your sweetheart?"

"That's enough." Hawkeye was beginning to get angry. "She is an engaged woman. Yes, I think she is one of the best women I've ever met, and I happen to think what she does for the troops are great, but that doesn't mean I'm in love with her. And I'm not so much of a flirt to try and ruin her and her fiancée's happiness. Maybe if she was single, but she's not. And yes, I asked for a bracelet and she made me one. How dare you!" Hawkeye's tone was starting to become condemning. "How dare you! Whatever second thoughts I had of doing anything with you have gone."

Abel watched him walk angrily back toward the Swamp.

0o0o0o0o

Just before Hawkeye walked into the tent he could see that his bunkmates were knitting.

"So you're expecting me to sit here for half an hour with my hands like this so you can make ball of yarn, just so you begin a new knitting project." Sarah was sitting in the chair next to BJ's bed, as BJ wound string across her hands.

"If you want to put it like that, then yes." BJ smiled at Sarah. "Besides you volunteered."

"True enough" Laughter echoed throughout the Swamp.

Oh, yes. Sarah was now an unwilling inmate of the Swamp. While she had gone with Father to the orphanage to deliver the heating units, a surprise inspection happened. An outrage happened when it was found that a doctor was sleeping in the same tent as the Head Nurse. No one would believe that the doctor was not a male doctor. A direct order was given to place all of her personal belongings in the Swamp with the other doctors. When Sarah got back she gave Colonel Potter hell. Hawkeye never suspected calm, reserved Sarah such a hell raiser. He suspected that if he roused BJ like that, that's what it would look like. Sarah lost the argument, but she threatened the Swamp trio if they tried anything their ass would be kicked into next century. When Charles made some sort of comment about her appearance when going to bed, he received such a death stare he shut up and never said anything again. Although, Hawkeye had admit that she did have a strange appearance when going to bed. She wore an oversized t-shirt reaching her mid-thighs and then some sort of baggy pajamas. She had been there for about a month now, since they were now in mid-April. Radar had gone home. Klinger was in the company clerk.

As Hawkeye angrily entered the Swamp, slamming the door and huffed on to the bed, BJ immediately sat up and Sarah watched carefully. She was now a good friend, she would never think of interfering between the two best friend, and almost brothers. "What's the matter, Hawk?" BJ asked.

"I just can't believe some people!" Hawkeye said. "I really can't. The presumption they have, just because people won't do what they want! They assume that a man and a woman can't just be friends, but _no_, there has to be a romantic tryst going on between them. Of course! That makes all the sense in the world."

_He's working himself up_. "Who are they, Hawk?" BJ asked.

Hawkeye gave a glance, at Sarah, who immediately got the point, she exited the room to give the boys some alone time. "I think I'll go help Klinger, the poor guy needs all the help he can get with his new job."

0o0o0o0o

"مرحبا ، قد يكون كل ما تبذلونه من الجمال يبصقون الحرة."

Sarah said smiling. _Hello, may all your camels be spit free._

بالاضافة الى انك

Klinger said. _As well to you_. Klinger really liked it when Sarah spoke her Arabic, that wasn't even Lebanese Arabic. "I think I'm wearing off on you, Captain, your Arabic is starting to sound Lebanese."

"I hope not. But can I help you? Your room looks less than immaculate." Sarah surveyed all the papers on the floor, on the desk and on the bed. She began to collect papers on the ground.

"You're not going to tell me, like everyone else, that Radar did a so much better job than I do?" Klinger asked suspiciously.

"No"

"And you're not going to tell me that this place looks like a pigsty?"

"No"

"Well then, Captain, I am begging on my knees for you help."

"On one condition, you call me 'captain' one more time in private and you'll be on kitchen duty for a week."

0o0o0o0o

An intruder rifled through papers, through BJ Hunnicut's old tent, through Benjamin Pierce's and Charles Winchester V's tent. Everything was ransacked. The intruder had no idea of what he was looking for except anything that led to the formers' whereabouts. Both Benjamin Pierce and BJ Hunnicut were now MIA. Finally, in Winchester's tent he found something that obviously had importance. Grabbing it, he ran off and escaped the military zone.

Not an hour later, he read it, slowly, for English was not his first language, where a page had been marked. Realization hit him of where BJ Hunnicut or should he call her Sarah Black was. Indeed, Charles Emerson Winchester the Third's diary was a treasure.

0o0o0o0o

"Lockdown! Everybody go to your command office!" Chaos reigned as all medical personnel filed in to Colonel Cory Potter's office.

"Listen, everyone needs to stay calm. We had an intruder, about an hour ago. Obviously someone was asleep on the watch, and now is butt is being kicked from here to China. Now they are going to patrol the place searching. If they can't find anyone they're going to let us continue on. Check your belongings, personal letters, anything."

"Ah, Colonel," Emerson spoke up. "Do ya think that this has anything to our comrades that aren't….presently with us?"

"Let us hope not."

0o0o0o0o0o

"You know why I think you're upset?" BJ said quietly. He had convinced Hawkeye to sit down and tell him what happened.

"Why?"

"Because you may not admit to it, but you like Sarah."

"No, I don't. I can't. She's engaged. I'm just the person that happens to spend every waking moment, in the OR, in Post-OP, in the Mess Tent, in my room, almost everywhere, just like I do with everyone else."

"But has any female not looked for a romantic tryst with you, and just try to be your friend?"

There was silence.


	18. Chapter 18

"Roomie," Hawkeye came in

"Roomie," Hawkeye came in. "The mailman came and left while you were in here, so little-oh-me picked it up."

Sarah curled up on her cot with a cup of tea and her diary, who until he came over had been writing, looked up with a grand smile. "Thanks, Hawk." She eagerly looked at her letters, five which were from Ben. She began to open one until she noticed that Hawkeye was still standing over her. Though looking mournfully at the letters she put them away.

"¿Qué pasa chico?"

"What?"

She sighed. Obviously, taking a foreign language wasn't required when going to school here. "What's up?"

She was handed a pair of scissors. He looked her straight in the eye, and pulled up his sleeve to reveal a yellow bracelet. "Please cut it off. It doesn't need to be there anymore."

She obliged.

0o0o0o0

"Sarah!"

"Hold on." _One last stitch_. "Send in the next victim." She turned around. Relief swept over her like a wave when she saw Ben. "Oh, Ben, thank God. Please scrub up and-"

"Sarah, listen." The urgency in his voice made her stop. "They are sending me to the front."

The world should have stopped. The wounded should have stopped coming. But none of that happened. Only the doctors and nurses stopped talking. And her brain was in shock.

"Listen, if you really don't want me to go, I'll try my best to get out of it." Ben looked into her eyes. She knew what he meant. He'd go home. It didn't take more than a second to make her decision. And it was one of the hardest she had to make. If he went death was almost certain.

"When you and I got engaged, we agreed that patients would come before we did. I need you more than ever, but," her voice was breaking, on the edge of tears. "but, those boys on the front need you even more. And it would be selfish to want you to stay here."

Impulsively, he pulled down her mask and kissed her, as if was the last time. An inch away from her lips, he whispered, "I love you."

"I love you too."

A jeep was honking outside, and he left. Sarah was crying from underneath her mask.

"Do you need a moment, Sarah?"

Reality sat back in. She was in Korea, and wounded were dying, time to focus on what was needed, and not to lament. She needed to lock up her breaking heart until the OR session was over.

"No, I-I'll be fine."

"Sarah?"

"Yeah?"

"That was the damnest best display of courage I've ever seen."

"Then why do I feel like I've just sentenced him to death?"

0o0o0o0o0

Hours and hours later she was still working. She was tired. She hurt. She kept going. Sponge. Thread. Suction. Knife. Another life saved. Joke. Talk. Worry. Worry. Worry.

"Captain Black you have a telegram." Klinger came in.

Her heart stopped. Fighting to keep her composure, she said. "Read it out loud."

"Okay, but its in another language. I'll try and read it. _Capitan, inciende todos el diario del abuelo de Emerson. __Ten cuidado. __Vango mañana a las ocho PM_. Then its signed, Colonel Cory Porter."

Fear went into instantly. She took several steadying breaths. "Doctor, are you alright? Sarah!" Margaret said. Margaret was assisting her.

"I'm fine." _Control! _Military training kicked in. _Never panic…it will lead to your ruin_. "Klinger you really butchered that language."

"I thought it said a colonel was going to make passionate love to you, but hey, what do I know." Hawkeye's joking voice came through to her head.

"Pierce, crude and boorish as usual, honestly, Sarah how do you live with him?"

"I ask myself the same thing everyday about all my bunkmates." A cry went around the room. "Klinger when was that telegram sent?"

"Yesterday evening. Lines are slow. We got it today?"

"What time is it?"

"About eleven at in the morning. We've been working for about twenty-six hours."

"We're gonna have a guest in about nine."

0o0o0o0o

She sat down in the changing room. She was exhausted. They had been working nonstop. She was the lucky one to get done first. Twenty-seven hours in OR. She felt like sleeping right here.

"Uh, Sarah?" Charles appeared. She looked up. He cleared his throat. "I happen to be talented enough to have the ability to speak several languages, Spanish in one of them. I, by chance, was attentively listening to the telegram that Klinger read. And you did not tell the whole message to the group. It was a very curious message. Could you possibly reveal its meaning?"

She looked up at him. She decided to tell him a partial answer. "Charles, I too am not quite sure what the meaning is, but I have a feeling that its bad. But on the other hand I get to see a good friend of my fathers."

Charles looked at her intently. "I don't usually do this, but if you are in some sort of financial sort of-"

Sarah smiled. "Charles, thank you, but right now, money is the last worry on my mind. But I appreciate the gesture."

She got up and hugged Charles tightly. "It means a lot to me."

Charles looked slightly flabbergasted, but he patted on her back, in an awkward sort of way. And Abel just chanced on seeing the exchange.

0o0o0o0o

"This man must be very important to you, Sarah." Charles observed. He, BJ and Hawkeye watched her watch herself check herself in the mirror and put her hair up in a bun, smoothing as she did so. She was in her class-A uniform, freshly ironed. And despite the dirt she was in her heels. _He's my boss, and commander_, Sarah thought wryly. "Yeah, he is."

"Colonel…what's his name?" BJ asked. He was reminded of when Peg use to primp herself before they went out on dates, as Sarah pulled out a make-up tube.

"Mascara, too? Sarah, I feel insulted, you never wear so much make-up for us." Hawkeye interjected teasingly. "Are we not important?"

"Ah, but she does, Pierce. Have you ever seen her when she wakes up?" Charles said. "It's a blessing she usually awakens and gets dressed before we do." Sarah found the closest item, and chucked it at his head.

"Hey, that's my shoe!" BJ said in a mock whiny voice.

"Attention, Captain, the colonel will be here within 30 seconds." Klinger's voice rang over the PA system. Giving a groan, Sarah hurried up finished her mascara and ran out the door.

"A little anxious don't you think?" Charles said, as soon as the door slammed.

"She hasn't slept well, stopped all practical jokes, and been quieter than ever since Ben left." BJ replied.

"No, I think it's been since she got that telegram." Hawkeye said grimly. "The question is what was in it?"

The translation of the Spanish is: Captain, burn the diary of Emerson's grandfather. Be careful. I'll be there tomorrow at eight P.M.


	19. Chapter 19

"Well when ah heard from ole Jay himself that his daughter was off in Korea, then I thought to myself, best go see her while I was her

"Well when ah heard from ole Jay himself that his daughter was off in Korea, then I thought to myself, best go see her while I was here. And here she is all dressed up like a soul'jer that ah barely recognize her, meself. Lord Almighty, it makes a man feel old. Ah remember when ah bounced her on mah lap while her mamma was wearin' herself tryin' to catch that troublesome son o' hers."

They were at the Officer's club, with a few drinks around it. Although that they were running on very few hours of sleep, and Sarah was uptight of the news Colonel "Porter" had yet to tell her, the accent that the colonel was putting on to make himself unlike his grandfather was funny. Colonel Potter had had, with no surprise, taken a strong liking to him, and everyone but Charles was really digging his sense of humor and accent. She was turning red as he reminded her that she once had been a young child.

"Ah hope this un' ain't given ya no trouble, Colonel." There was a twinkle in his eye that she didn't trust.

"Oh?" BJ inquired. "Is she more that a practical joker, Colonel?"

"This youngin'? Why she had a temper that made the whole neighborhood shutter? Her mamma couldn't make control that temper. Her pappy took the belt out her, yes siree, but this spitfire would feel so bad after her outburst or flashes o' anger she'd be an angel for weeks. Ah never saw such a change in a child. It was finally when she got in a fight-"

"I think that's enough, Colonel." She said loudly.

"No tell us, colonel. Tell us." Hawkeye said in a mock child's voice.

"Colonel, will I never live it down?" She begged him not to tell. "I think I'll never be able to show my face again in camp."

"Ah don't think one moah story will hurt, chile. Well, gentilmen as I was sayin' her parents told me later what happened in part. Turn out this one boy was messin' wif this friend o' hers and what was her name, Sarah?"

"Shirley." _Shirley O'Reilley to be exact_.

0o0o0o0o0o

"I don't think it's a good idea for me to come to your school, BJ." Shirley was short young girl with large braids and whose face was plastered by big rim wired glasses. She was slightly on the plump side, and was wearing overalls.

"Why not?" BJ demanded to know. "It will be fun. I'll introduce you to all my friends."

"I just have a bad feeling about it."

"What's gonna harm you? If it makes you feel better you can be joined at the hip with me."

"All right"

At lunch time, BJ had to go to the bathroom and left Shirley outside with some of her friends. Then some sixth grade boys showed up and began to tease Shirley.

"Who are you fatso? Are you Brianna's little protégé?" Shirley didn't know what protégé meant, but she got the gist.

"B-B-BJ is my friend." She tremble as the boys drew closer.

"Oh, yeah? Where is she now? Aren't you some dirt-twirler's daughter from Idaho."

"Actually, she's from Iowa." BJ had returned. "Back off."

"Yeah, who's gonna make me Brianna?" The ringleader stood up.

BJ's fist closed into a ball. "Don't call me Brianna."

"Oh, yeah? Brianna, Brianna, Brianna."

"Shut up otherwise this will be shoved up your nose!" She held up her fist.

"You're just a little sissy. You're a girl."

_Wham_. _Wham_. _Wham_.

The kid never bothered BJ again. The kid's mother came and apologized to the Hunnicuts. The kid developed a crush on BJ and then asked her to Homecoming their freshman year. BJ was grounded for the rest of her summer, except for the week she went to her grandfather's house. Shirley was to grow out of her shell, become president of her student council in high school, and then be sergeant in the U.S Air Force who specialized with military dogs.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

_Well at least someone thinks it's funny_. Sarah thought uncharitably.

"Sarah did that?" Everyone couldn't stop laughing. She'd never live it down now.

"Sarah, ah haven't seen you dance since the night of your engagement party. Will you give the ole man the pleasure?"

"Absolutely, Colonel."

"Watch out, Colonel, you might find her fist in your mouth." Colonel Potter cracked.

She put a quarter into the slot. An old waltz song began to start on. Colonel Porter began to walt with her around the room.

Dropping the accent and with real concern he asked, "How are you, BJ?"

"A wreck since I got your telegram."

"I need to talk to you alone."

"We're alone right now."

"Don't be stupid, Captain. I suggest you go to bed early so you don't fall asleep while I try to brief you.I suspect the party will either end after you to bed or it will just start." His voice had become a bit on the edge. She became more military like.

"Sir, I think that it will end, because we've been up for at least two days now."

"One way or another I need to talk to you. And these old joints can't keep up the dancing." Raising his voice, he said, "Ben- uh- ah mean Hawkeye come finish the dance. Ah'm afraid these old joints just can't keep spinin' like they use too."

0o0o0o0o

Hawkeye was surprised when the visiting colonel had single him out to finish out the song with Sarah. The colonel had not spoken much in depth with him, despite his usual quirks and sayings. "Well, I don't know, this is only first ball, and Sarah hasn't danced with any of us since our dance a month ago."

Sarah's eyes smiled. Hawkeye had noticed that. Even when she didn't grin, her eyes were full of laughter, and mirth. She seemed to be loosening up for the first time this evening. "Well, miss, I hope you don't mind my dancing."

The colonel looked puzzled at them, but he didn't seem to want to press for its meaning. Hawkeye found his arms easily sliding around Sarah's waist and into her hand. He tried hard not to marvel how his hand seemed to perfectly fit on her waist. He tried hard to not to notice the warmth radiating from her hand as well as her body. He kept about six inches of light between them as gentleman should. He tried to remember that she was practically a married woman to his carbon-copy. He tried hard to remember that he could only be her friend. And he tried most hard of all to remember what Benjamin Tuttle had said to him at the dance. "Watch over her, won't you? She's not always as strong as she pretends to be." The trust in his eyes when he had said that to Hawkeye, the promise easily given at the time, was now an unbearable because it meant to keep from hurting her. And it would only hurt her if he even thought of being more intimate.

"Am I that scary with make-up on that you can't look me in the face?" A light, jesting tone came from the unbidden voice. He forced himself to meet her gaze.

"Well, since you put it that way, you kind of look like Margaret when she first wakes up in the morning." He quipped. He hadn't really meant to say that, but it kept the light-hearted mood going. She laughed softly.

"And you would know that how?"

"That's my secret." Hawkeye smiled. It was hard to think of Margaret right now, in any other way but friendly.

"I am not always proper, Hawkeye. I find that I can dance a whole lot better if you're not so stiff and so far away." Hawkeye's heart seemed not skip not just one beat, but several. Surprise must have been evident on his face. She smiled. "Do I shock you?"

"No, just realize I'm not that fast. I've heard about men that pick young girls like me and just dangle them on a string." He took a step in closer. There was almost no light, if any, in between them. Sarah was right, they could move much better if they were closer. He hadn't had the opportunity to dance with Sarah at the dance because she had disappeared to do surgery. She danced well, too; as if she was waltzing on clouds instead on the wooden floors.

He looked into her eyes, and she back into his. Slowly the teasing light faded and a deeper emotion came into her eyes. Hawkeye couldn't define what it was, even if he had been thinking coherently at the time. If he had been he might have wondered if she was searching for Ben in him, if she was feeling what he felt, if she was feeling that conflicted, or a mixture of both. As human creatures rarely think coherently in the heat of the moment, and Hawkeye, too, is a human being he stared back meeting her intense gaze, leaning forward even more.

The song, like all songs do, ended. But so encouraged by their audience that they did a few more dances together, not all of them waltz. They seemed welded together and the night was theirs. Sarah's passion for dancing melted with his seemed to make everything more vibrant, colorful He stopped thinking and apparently so did her. It was all emotion conflicting, tantalizing, and it was somewhere between reality and a dream. And abruptly, it stopped. It was one song.

0o0o0o0o0o

_L- is for the way you look at me._

What the _hell_ was she doing? Reality set back on to her. She stepped back. This wasn't Ben she was dancing with. This was Hawkeye. Ben's grandfather. What was she thinking? This wasn't Ben. This isn't Ben. This man could never be Ben.

_O- is for the only one I see._

Whatever closeness had been between them was cut off when she took a step back. Tears filled her eyes. "I'm sorry." She motioned towards the jukebox. "This is Ben and mine's song. Please make my excuses to the rest of the place. The last two days, to top with this have been-"

"I understand." Hawkeye gave her a look that anguished her. She had to keep herself from fleeing the room.

_V- is very, very extra ordinary_

She hurriedly got ready for bed, so she could seem asleep before they others got here. And unlike her usual custom, she dressed inside the tent instead of in the women's showers to prevent unwanted visitors while she was dressing. She collapsed on the bed. She wasn't even sure what she was crying about. Whether it was what she had felt, who she had deluded, and worse how she had deluded herself.

_E- is even more than you adore_

Half and hour later, she was composed enough to not cry and think on best to repair her present state. As her fellow tent mates entered she feigned being asleep. She also noticed that someone stood for a few moments at the end of her bed.

0o0o0o0o0o

They seemed to be asleep. Sarah tried to put on a jacket as quietly as possible, put on slippers and slipped out the door. Charles awoke, and quietly shook his fellow bunk mates.

"BJ, Hawk, she's left." The sleepy eyes left the two at once when they realized what he had said. They had agreed that one of them would stay up to see if Sarah snuck out to speak to the visiting colonel since they had watched them like a hawk (no pun intended) to see what was happening. None of them said a word since the colonel and Sarah were meeting just outside. They just open up the tent winter flaps just slightly so they could hear the conversation.

"What's happened, Colonel? Why is it so important that you couldn't even put in writing, or code or something?" Sarah's voice was on the edge.

"They know where you are BJ." Hawkeye, BJ and Charles stared at each other. Why did the colonel just call Sarah BJ?

"How? Was it Charles' diary?"

"You need to burn it. Rip out the pages or something. They entered the camp a few days ago, went into Emerson's tent and out about a single woman doctor in the Korean War who matches your description completely. I didn't come down right away because we weren't sure what else was missing. It's been all over the news that Harvard's lab was broken into all though the press won't say what. They stole a time traveler. They don't know how to work it, but I have no doubt they will soon. You need to leave, they can hid you-"

"No"

"What do you mean 'no'?"

"I'm not going to keep hiding. If I go anywhere I'm going to go back to the year 2008 and wait it out back at the war back home. We can capture them that way and I can say my name again without having anything to fear. I can marry my fiancé Benjamin Pierce. I'm going to fly my family across the country so I get married in Crabapple Cove, Maine. I'm going to see Benjamin Franklin Pierce also known as Hawkeye as my grandfather-in-law. But I have a feeling that's not going to happen."

"Glad we're on the same page. Now what in the name Sam Hill as my grandfather said tonight are you talking about?"

"You know just as well as I do, that the minute they get here they could just kill my grandfather and then that would erase me from existence. Not to mention the hundreds of lives my grandfather need to save before this war is over. Not to mention my dad isn't even born yet! All he talks about is Aunt Erin. I have a responsibility towards them. They don't know anything is wrong. I've screwed up and now I've got to fix it."

"I could order you home."

"But you won't. You need someone here on the lookout to make sure they don't kill all of our grandparents. Besides it's me they're lookin' for. A wise man once told me that friends come and go but family is forever."

"Let me guess, the original BJ Hunnicut."

"I think he's been preparing me for this moment my whole life. All the messages, everything makes an eerie sort of sense that I interpreted a different way as a kid. There was a story as a kid he used to tell me, and it sounds a whole lot like mine. I'm the princess and the princess refused to leave the village when it was under attack. But I always told the ending so I don't know how it ends."

"You're telling me that you're staying here because of a bedtime story your granddad use to tell you as a kid? You are a lunatic."

"I have to stay. There's no other option. I won't let them be killed."

There was a heavy sigh. "You see this button. If something happens press this button then we'll and half the Marine Corps will be down here. On the night of the dance we put in a surveillance system that is connected to the PA system will be playing some sort of very modern music if it picks up them on its radar."

"Yessir."

"BJ, you lied to me?"

"Sir?"

"For someone who doesn't believe in the war, you are sure as hell as acting patriotic right now."

"Don't spread it around. It will ruin my reputation."

"You know you might not make it."

"I've been aware of the fact."

"Here's a gun. Pray to God you don't have to use it." 

"I always do."

"And Sarah?"

"What do I tell the gang and your family?"

"That I did the right thing. And that I love them."

"And who said women weren't tough. Here's a hug. I'm so sorry it comes to this."

"Me too."

She was heading back to the tent. They stood up. BJ felt like he was overwhelmed when he said,

"Hello, BJ."


	20. Chapter 20

All of all times to go on a cruise, this had to be the one

_A/N: In Muslim culture it is considered a great insult to show one's palm of the foot to another._

_All of all times to go on a cruise, this had to be the one_. The old man slumped in defeat. He had been trying to get a hold of Charles Emerson Winchester the Third for a month now, but Charles had been on a cruise in the Caribbean and had purposely not brought any cell phones, laptops, or anyway of connecting to him at all. He and the missus had gone to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary. All he had gotten was static from the man's son and apologies that he couldn't reach his father.

_Ring. Ring_

"Honey, will you get that for me?" Benjamin called down the hall. His wife was in the living room and closest to the phone. He sat back in memory for a while. He hadn't been in Crabapple for very long, even though he was struggling with depression and memories from the war when he had met his wife. He had gone to a church picnic that he hadn't really wanted to go to, but he had been finding solace in going to church. He couldn't explain it. Maybe it was the familiarity of having a Catholic priest around, or just needing stability in his life that found him a measure of peace. Other than that he shunned all public outings and left the church as quickly as possible. He ignored people's disapproval of his still living with his father, not practicing medicine and most shocking of all to the female population he was no longer the Hawkeye that flirted with every woman in sight and in fact he seemed to have no interest in women at all.

But as it was he was going to the picnic. And there she was. He would never forget what she was wearing that day. She had been a brunette with brown eyes and had been handing out slices of cake. He had an uncharacteristic moment and sloshed his red punch all over her. While mopping up the punch he asked her out fumbling over the words. Over a period of a year and a half she helped him heal from war, by making him recount stories, be there at anytime of day, just listen for hours on end. She without knowing it made him interested in life again. He took over his father's private practice, he went to neighborhood parties, and he was an active social member. He was no longer the flirt he had been, but he was never known as cold or distant. When being introduced he introduced himself as Benjamin, for some unknown reason to others, and perhaps to himself except in his inner most conscious. She was a quiet, reserved person, but once he found himself falling love he found her to have a quiet inner passion that loved him back, but was willing for him to put his career first. He asked her to marry him on the path along the beach one evening. The rest was history.

"Ben, it's for you, its Charles." If he could move fast in old age he would've done so. But he went as fast as his joints allowed him to go. "Charles? Put your hearing aid in! I said PUT YOUR HEARING AID IN!!...can you hear me now?... It's time."

0o0o0o0o

"Hi-"She caught herself, but it was too late. They looked at her with confusion, suspicion and with betrayal. She knew she had been spied on. "You spied on me." She didn't bother making it sound like a question. It was a statement. There was no reply to the accusation she threw at them. The look on their faces was enough.

"Who are you?" BJ's voice was like steel.

"You lied to us." Hawkeye's voice was very quiet and dangerous sounding. Charles simply looked at her.

She looked at them, wishing for the world she didn't have to tell them what she was going to tell them next. "How much did you hear?"

"Everything" BJ had not lost the edge to his voice.

"Then I guess you need to sit down so I can tell you." She wanted to take the tension off. She pulled out her gun and handed it to BJ. "Pledge of good faith." She sat down on her cot. She gave a heavy sigh. "I don't know where to begin."

"Start with your name and work from there."

"My name is BJ Hunnicut. I am a captain in the U.S Army. And I am from the future."

That got a good laugh from them. Hawkeye, BJ and even Charles in spite of themselves began to laugh. "Do you expect us to believe that ludicrous pack of lies?" Charles asked.

She was frustrated. "I'll prove it to you." She pulled out her time traveler. She looked at her watch. She set her time traveler for two minutes into the future. Since she didn't have the new one she'd probably be a bit off. Putting the cord firmly around her wrist she pressed the red button. And slowly she began to disappear.

0o0o0o0o0

The sky might as well have fallen and banged their foreheads. They stared at the place where she had disappeared from. After about a minute of or so BJ seemed to get enough of his wits about him and he put his hand where she had been standing. Nothing. Still unbelieving, with the others they all huddled around where she had been.

"Do you reckon…" Hawkeye trailed off. He couldn't say the rest out loud. Could she have been telling the truth? "My God, I've fallen for my granddaughter-in-law, Beej, what'd I do?"

But BJ was in a reverie of his own. Could this seriously be his own granddaughter? Things were starting to fall back into place. It explained her mannerisms, which they had passed off for just being similar. It explained all her values so similar to his. It explained why she looked so much like Peg.

"Gentlemen, let us not be so hasty in believing." Charles said half-heartedly. Things were really starting to make a lot of sense. Like why she wouldn't smoke, or she wouldn't get drunk, or she avoided working in the OR with other doctors. This was starting to explain the telegram. Then it clicked. "Dear Lord."

He rushed over to his table and tore out all the recent pages. He started feeding them to the fire, with a hurried sense. He was getting an inkling of what was a stake. "What are you doing?" Hawkeye asked getting slightly alarmed at Charles violent despair to burn those words.

"The telegram," Charles said as his panic began to mount, "It said burn Emerson's diary. And we can all guess who would name their child Charles _Emerson_ Winchester."

"Don't burn the first day she got here!" BJ's voice was sharp. Charles and Hawkeye froze and turned on the spot.

"What do you mean, BJ?"

"If you burn the first day she's here then no one will know where she is. Not the terrorists, not Ben, not the colonel-" BJ started to laugh.

"What's so funny? We need a laugh." Hawkeye was starting to think BJ was losing his mind.

"You-you know that colonel?" BJ felt that this was so ironic. "Guess who he is? Take out the first r in his name and switch it with a t."

Hawkeye thought about it for a moment. Then it hit him. "That's Cory Potter! That's the grandchild that Colonel Potter hasn't seen yet!"

"Their two colonels related, and they were talking about World War I!" BJ found this hilarious. "He fooled us all. We, including the colonel thought he had been there."

"The colonel probably told him enough stories growing up that he would know." Charles interrupted. He calmly put the diary away.

BJ hit the floor with a force with Sarah/BJ on top of him. "Well, that was stupid," she said as she got off him. "Didn't I just disappear from that spot?"

As her grandfather pulled himself off the floor, the three men stared at her. She felt exasperated and more tired, if that was humanly possible, from the time travel.

"Do you believe me now?"

The three men nodded silently. She sat down and they did so as well. She could tell that they didn't know how to act around her. Too many emotions were flowing around her head. BJ came over and she stood up, and they were about six inches away from each other's face. "Are you really?"

Tears welled up in her eyes. She pulled out her Indian necklace. "He was right. It saved Peg, Aunt Erin, and hopefully one day it will save me too."

"So I'll make it back home?" BJ's eyes were wet too now. She nodded, and he hugged her. They cried together.

0o0o0o0o0

"What fool," the man asked slowly, "only reads the first page, and then takes the whole book to know that we are on to them? They are now covering the entire country looking for us. Al-Qaeda is not only upset with us, but we are the brink of being killed!"

The other man was silent. "Answer me!" He thundered.

"But sir, look, there are no more pages about her. As if she ceased to exist."

Grabbing the book, the man stared. And then began to laugh. "You see this? Those pages were ripped out. She knows we're on to her."

"Maybe we should forget about her?" The coward asked.

"Forget! Would you ever let a woman do this to you?" He showed the bottom of his foot to the man. "Now that we've got a time traveler you didn't even bother figuring out how it works! Imbeciles! They sent Potter back in time, no doubt to warn her. Time is running short, even with a time traveler. But we have one thing that will save us."

"What is it?"

"Brianna Hunnicut is an American sentimental fool, who would do anything to protect her family, honor and country. That can to be to our advantage."

0o0o0o0

"These are letters you wrote to Grandma. Or are going to write." Out of the false bottom of her trunk she pulled out letters yellowed with age. She handed them over to the three, the ones that BJ had already written.

"Beej, you wrote that one last week!" Hawkeye said, pointing to the date. "What are the ones in your hands?" Charles asked.

She held them protectively. "These are the ones you haven't written yet. I can't let you have them."

They just looked at her. "Why ever not? I'm going to write them. Besides all these are personal." BJ took all the letters back. He looked at his granddaughter to give them back.

She shook her head. "I don't want to change the future. I'd rather you not look at them. These letters helped me know what to expect when I got here. If you see them now, and write them differently things will be different. I'm already risking it by telling you my name, where I'm from and everything."

"What do you mean?"

"What if you decided right now not to have another child with Peg? Then all my siblings will cease to exist. The people we saved or lives we've touched will be different. The people I've saved by being a surgeon might not have survived."

There was a brief silence. "Tell us why you're here." Hawkeye said. He couldn't meet her eye anymore. It was wrong to know that you were taken with your grandson's bride-to-be. He wished himself not to have a heart.

"I am from the year 2008. There is a war going on there. Not like the ones here."

"What do you mean?"

She sighed. "Close your eyes. Imagine that a group of people who hate Americans killed 5,000 innocent civilians on a terrible, terrible day. Then your president reveals to you that this isn't a country we're up against, and you can't fight them with men. They are a secret organization, and the only person we know who's in it is the main leader. They don't fight you with lines of organized people but in secret. They set off bombs on your allies, so they pull out and won't help you. You invade the country where their stronghold is. You try and stabilize the country. But as every soldier know the street you patrol one day might not be safe the next." A tear slipped out. "A car bomb, or the market place might be blown to bits and then all the civilians of that country that you're trying to help hate you too. If the group finds out that they support you then they're dead. You cannot trust anyone except your fellow soldiers and God." She fought hard for breath.

"As a doctor you mainly treat civilians, and soldiers for psychological reasons. No one can take that kind of stress. The parents look at you like you are the last hope on Earth, and sometimes you are, when their children's flesh has been burned by a bomb. You are the first to arrive on scene when you heard that the group is allowing a hostage to be free. And that's were I come in. I checked in the next room for any other people, and they jumped out. I fought and broke one's arm and the others escaped. I also got on the U.S information back from them. The person whose arm I broke committed suicide before they could interrogate him. At any rate, it was an insult to that person that I got the information back and that I raised alarm to capture him. He wants me dead. So they decided to hide me because I was endangering the mission. But I'm not going to hide any longer. I'm sick of hiding." She looked around. "That's how I got here. Well, I got to Korea. I had to go somewhere I knew a lot about and was unlikely to screw up my own future. But by a twist of fate they needed me here at the 4077. I didn't say know because I wanted to see you, all of you. I had heard a lot about Korea, and the 4077, and I wanted to see-" She was about to give away that BJ would be dead back at home, but she rephrased her sentence, "you guys in real life. Not just some old farts who tell me stories."

That got some weak smiles. Hawkeye asked slowly, "So Ben is my grandson?"

"Yes"

"Am I still alive there?"

"Yes"

"And I approve of you getting married to my grandson?"

"To phrase exactly what you said when Ben announced it was that he must've gotten me pregnant to convince me to marry him and that you were the luckiest granddad in all of Maine, and that I would've done my grandfather proud." It slipped out. She didn't mean to tell them that her grandfather was dead.

"So I don't make it to your wedding?" BJ asked. "Wait, you said your grandfather died when you were seventeen. That was me wasn't it?"

It all made sense to him now. "You came to the 4077 because you wanted to see me again."

Silence.

"Sarah, BJ whatever your name might really be, is that I'm sure that in the future I love you very much. If I hurt you by not loving you now, you've got to understand that I haven't even had your dad yet!"

She looked at him. "I never expected to get it, BJ, because if you haven't noticed, right now we happen to be the same age. I came to see what you were like, and just see you again. Nothing more."

A thought occurred to Hawkeye. "What does BJ stand for? For both parties here."

She smiled. "Whatever you like." BJ and she looked at each other and laughed.


	21. Chapter 21

Sarah looked over her letters

A/N: For some reason I can't understand the first like seven or eight words I write are repeated when I post this. And there is some language which is why I rated this so, but nothing I think that passes PG-13. But you'll understand that emotions are running high in this part. I'm not very good at writing about anger or fights so tell me how I did when you review, please! Also, To Hell and Back was an autobiographical movie where Audie Murphy plays himself and what happened to him during WWII. He did it to cope with coming back from the war. For more info on him just Google him.

Sarah looked over her letters. The last ones she would get from home. Colonel Porter had left this morning. He had said they were cutting off all communication, just in case. The last letters were priceless. She traced her niece's last drawing that he had given her. It showed her niece and her hand in hand in a meadow with flowers and a purple butterfly. She was in her uniform and her niece in her princess outfit. _Happynes_. That was her niece had written in her unsteady writing. She smiled at the misspelling. She wished more than ever to be home.

After the colonel had left she went back to bed. She taped up the drawing on the heaters pipe leading towards the ceiling of the tent so she could see it everyday. It was eight o'clock.

There was a knock on the door. She looked at her sleeping bunkmates. "Come in," she whispered. The door creaked open. Kellye crept in. She looked worried, and upset. Sarah immediately put away her memories for the time being. "What's the matter, Kellye? Is it one of the patients?"

"No. Sarah, trouble's stirring." Kellye looked distraught.

"What kind of trouble?"

"Abel. She's got in to her head that you're out to steal all the men in the camp. She's getting' some of the others to rally behind her. They were talking about it last night. They're gonna try to run you out, by either making it unbearable for you, or convincing Colonel Potter to get you transferred."

"Any idea of what they're going to try to pull?" Her voice was even.

"I think they're going to put you in a situation that makes you look like a-a-a" Kellye couldn't work herself up to say it.

"A slut? A whore? A bitch?" Sarah supplied as suggestions with a faint smile. Kellye looked surprised that such words would come out of her mouth. "Just because I don't use them on a regular basis doesn't mean I am not acquainted with the words, Kellye."

Kellye immediately saw her error. Sarah smiled again for her to relax. "Thanks for the warning, but I think I can handle myself. She may start the fight but I'll end it."

0o0o0o0o0

"Wake up my fellow roommates." Doing her usual morning call she woke up each of her bunkmates. "Time to get up."

"One minute Peg." Muttered BJ in his sleep. She promptly took her pillow and socked him with it. "If I was Peg I would make you get the baby every time, lazy bum."

"Charles, unfortunately, no butler is here to dress you, so get off your sorry backside and get dressed."

"Hawkeye, Hawkeye." She got down next to him. "Wake up."

No response.

"Hawkeye, get up." Only slight movement. Sighing, she pulled out the big guns. Rolling up the Crabapple Cove paper that had fallen on the floor she shouted into it. "FREE DRINKS ON THE HOUSE!"

He woke up. He was also not amused that she woke him up. She simply said that he fell for the same trick every single day. She left for them to get dressed. She went to breakfast.

0o0o0o0o

_Boom_.

"Hit the dirt!" Ben yelled. He only one more week here, but he found it hard to believe that he would survive the week. No wonder so many people had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And no one was able to treat it. He now understood more fully why Audie Murphy made the movie, _To Hell and Back_. No one could cope with this. He relished in the few moments that they had silence. It was beautiful. And when no one was looking he pulled out his photo of BJ and him together. It was one of the last photos of them taken together before they went to war. They had been in residency. They were both lying in the grass, in blue jeans and a t-shirts smiling at the camera. Their hands were interlocked as if they could never be undone.

When the guys at the front had a few moments of piece and the wounded had been sent to the more secure and better prepped places for surgery they would talk. He had been asked about his girl, and he showed them a photo of "Sarah" which was really of Peg. They looked so alike that sometimes he almost believed that they were one and the same.

The only thing on him anymore besides his uniform, photo, was a letter to BJ if anything happened. He prayed to God she'd never see it, but just in case it was there.

"Hey, Ben" His companions looked at him as they had their heads over the head and were laying on the ground.

"Yeah."

"It's your turn." They took turns telling stories to keep their minds off the shelling.

"Again? What do you want to hear?"

"Anything." "About your girl." "Tell us about her, again." "You make her sound like a goddess." He smiled inwardly. She was to him.

"Well, I brought her home last Christmas to spend some time with my folks…." He found himself while telling the story caught in whirlwind of memories.

"_Ben, its like twenty-five degrees outside!" She exclaimed laughing. "I'm gonna freeze! Remember I'm a California girl? Not even going to John Hopkins has made me that warm blooded." _

_He put his arms around her and began to kiss her even infront of his young cousins. "Then I'll have to hold you to keep you warm. Ninety-eight and ninety-eight degrees equal one hundred and eighty-six degrees."_

"_No it doesn't." She laughed. "It equals one hundred and ninety-six degrees. Did you get that line from Trapper?"_

"_How did you know? Besides I was only ten degrees off. Please?" He whispered, kissing her cheek. "Pretty please?"_

"_All right. Just because I love you I'll freeze my butt off. Just because I'll love you I'll go on your walk. I know what your walks mean. They mean an hour or more walk. I will freeze." BJ laughed. "Didn't you see the frostbite cases before we left?"_

_They bundled up and went outside, and walked. They talked about their future, the military and everything else. Finally when they reached the boardwalk on the bluffs next to the beach and walked to a certain point where you could get off the boardwalk and stand next to the rail that separated you and the bluff's drop below, Ben stopped. BJ was slightly puzzled, but stopped as well. She stared out in the distance taking in how pretty it was here. The only sound she could here was the beating of the waves on the ground. _

_She heard Ben take a deep breath. "Brianna," He turned took her mittens and put them in his. "Do you love me?" He looked at her seriously, and intently more than ever waiting for her reaction. She seemed to sense that this was important. His heat fell for a fraction of a moment as she pulled her mitten away. Then he could understand she started unzipping her jacket, unbuttoning her sweat and finally there was her blouse. She pulled off his glove. She pulled his hand to the warmth of her skin. He could feel her heart beating. She looked at him with eyes shrouded with emotion. "It only beats for you."_

_They stood like that for a moment, until he realized she would be getting cold. He zipped up her jacket. He got down on one knee right in the snow. "BJ, I can't imagine my life without you. In fact, I would never be happy without you. I want to spend the rest of it with you. You and I together." He could see that she was trembling. "Brianna Jennifer Hunnicut, will you marry me?"_

"…when we got back to the house, a little while later we announced it to my parents. I had already asked her father the week before when we went to visit her family. He had given his approval and so here we are engaged."

He had edited the version with him just getting down on one knee after asking her if she loved him and calling her Sarah instead, but the story still made the men homesick and he saw the tears in their eyes. He promised himself he would never tell BJ, so she wouldn't tease him and others but one of the greatest secrets of men is that they too are romantics.

0o0o0o0o0

Abel had hatred radiating off her when that-that-that _witch_ walked into breakfast. She strutted in here like she owned the place. She looked at some of the nurses of her, they exchanged glances. She was not wanted here.

Then the unthinkable happened. She came and sat down with them. Abel glared at her, but Black seemed not to noticed. "Good morning," She said cheerfully. No reply, but this seemed not to affect her in the least. "How are you this morning?" She directed the question to Abel.

"You aren't welcomed here." She hissed.

"No, I didn't think I was." Sarah dabbed her mouth with her napkin and returned it to her lap. "You seem to be unhappy with me."

"Unhappy? _Unhappy?_" Abel was about to blow. "Can't you think why?"

Sarah's voice was quite calm and reserved. "I have given you no reason I can think of for you to dislike me."

"How dare you!" Another one hissed. "You've enamored every man in this camp."

"Have I?" Sarah looked mildly surprised. "I was under the opinion that Colonel Potter writes daily to Mildred back in Missouri."

"How dare you-" Abel left off. She stood up and looked down on Sarah, drawing herself to her full height. Sarah, too, stood up and Abel was to enraged to notice that Sarah had her beat by a few inches and could look down on her. "We've seen you around camping sneaking around like the whore you are-"

"That's enough." Sarah started to get a challenging look in her eye. "Take the plank out of you own eye before you stick the needle in mine."

"Don't give me that." Abel snared. "No one here believes your holier-than-thou act. Save it for the patients."

"It's only an expression, Abel. Besides if I'm what you said I am, then you are infinitely worse."

She took her hand and posed to strike Sarah right when a voice said, "What the hell is going on?"

But it was to late her hand was already it motion as well as Sarah's who blocked her slap. Since they were both on the end Abel pulled Sarah onto the ground. Abel began to shake Sarah and Sarah only one aimed shot at her stomach with her fist for Abel to double up and be in the fetal position making her especially vulnerable. By this time she was seized by a pair of hands. She recognized the hands of Hawkeye which were now gripping her with a grip of iron instead of caresses. The memory made her double in anger.

"You bitch who never deserved to walk upon this Earth!" She was screaming. "You think you can have every man in this camp. First Klinger with that 'I just want to help' act, then Winchester, yes, I hope the mail goes out today so your intended knows you're unfaithful, I saw you embracing him in the changing after OR yesterday. And you know what." She spat on the ground. "What's even worse is that I told him your cheating with his carbon-copy too. And I laugh because it's so true. All you have to do is look at Hawkeye. Can't you tell? He hasn't dated anyone since that dance, since you showed up! You make me sick." She spit at Sarah. "That's what I think of you."

"Where is that letter?" Sarah's voice was deadly. "How dare you say I was unfaithful to him. I love him! Where is that letter? God help me!" She lunged at Abel, but she was held by BJ and Potter. "Damn you where is that letter! You would destroy my happiness because you're taking out your lack of boyfriend on me! It's not true what you say!" She looked past Abel at Hawkeye. "Tell her Hawkeye!"

Abel felt victorious as Hawkeye looked away and couldn't say anything.


	22. Chapter 22

_The letter. The letter_. Sarah bounded towards Klinger's office. Adrenaline pumped through her veins. A new fear seeped into her very being. The one stable thing in this mess, who had been with her since the beginning was about to be taken away, but another's jealousy. Others were shouting at her from behind, but she paid no attention. Her sole focus was on the letter.

Her heart skipped a beat as she saw Klinger coming out with an official sack that was stamped with U.S MAIL in bold red letters. "Klinger, stop!" She shouted in Arabic. "Do not move!"

Klinger caught so off guard that he jumped in the air. The sergeant waiting on him for the mail furiously turned around saying "Lady, you can send your letter next time-"

She wasn't listening; she ripped the bag out of Klinger's hand. Despite cries of protests that mail was classified to everyone except Klinger, she looked through the mountain of letters. She tore through the pile without giving consideration to the harmless letters. She found what she was looking for. In loopy and flourishing cursive she found one addressed to The Fiancé of Sarah Black. She recognized it as Abel's script. She blew one great breath of relief and realized that she was shaking. Composing herself she handed the bag to the sergeant. "Forgive me, here's the mail. Klinger, may I have your lighter?"

Taking the lighter from the astonished Klinger she calmly burnt the letter and then dropped to the ground and smoldered it with mud.

0o0o0o0o0

The general's aide was quite nervous. He didn't understand these people. They came in demanding to see the leader of North Korea. There were five of them in total. Only one spoke Korean, the others spoke a language quite foreign to him. This was bad, since one of the few reasons he was general's aide was because he was fluent in English, French, Latin, and Chinese as well as his own language. What they had known was even eerier. How could they know the outcome of the battle before it was over? When the general had received the report he was astounded on how accurate they were. They told him they could tell him more if they got what they wanted. They were discussing the terms right now, and now the aide was walking back and forth next to the closed door which behind was being discussed what could mean the victory for North Korea.

Finally the door creaked open. The general appeared. He looked well pleased. "Get these men in my own home. They shall not have to stay in a hotel, but my own home! And get me on the line with Special Forces."

0o0o0o0o0o0

"Colonel Potter" She peeked into his office. Despite being here for a month she had never felt comfortable barging into his office like the others did. The colonel looked up with a certain air that portrayed a heaviness and tiredness of it all. "Come in."

When she sat down he began. "Well, Margaret has been so angry on your behalf that she has Abel confined to her cot for the next month. She is only to leave if we get wounded and for the bathroom, escorted. I can't court-martial her for what she did, because there is no rule for it. All her letters are to be read before sent off. I am truly sorry, Sarah." He sat back in his chair. "Love, and marriage are the worst casualties of war, and I don't want that to happen to you."

Sarah could think of nothing to say in response to this. Colonel Potter picked up the conversation again. "I think Margaret was so harsh because her marriage, too, has been a casualty of this war." He was waiting for her to say something. He wanted to ask her a question, but she decided to go on for what she had come here for.

"Colonel, I feel I should move to another tent, given present circumstances." She couldn't look into his weary brown eyes. Colonel Potter sat up and looked at her, waiting for an explanation. Suddenly, she felt like a small girl again. "I think that if Hawkeye has…romantic interests in me I think its best I move."

Quietly he asked. "Has Hawkeye given you any reason to believe that this is so?" She wondered if this was worrying for her feelings or Hawkeye's. "I don't know what to say. What to tell him. He knows I'm engaged, and he _must_ know that I am not interested in him."

"Does he?" She looked up at him. "Think about it. Have you given him any reason to believe that you were interested in him?"

0o0o0o0o0

"Father I feel like a fool." Father Mulchay watched Hawkeye paced back and forth in his room, like a wild animal that needed to be loose. Father Mulchay tried to keep up with Hawkeye's pace which reminded him of someone trying to outrun something.

"What about, my son?"

"You've heard about the incident at breakfast?"

"Well, yes" Father had heard about it. He had a feeling for where this conversation is going. But he kept silent. Hawkeye needed to let go of his feelings.

"Well, its true. What's more it's shameful. I've been acting in inappropriately to her. She's not just another nurse. She's engaged, her fiancé trusted me with her. He _asked_ me to watch over her and I-I all do is-" He fell silent. He looked at Father Mulchay. "Father, tell me what to do."

Father Mulchay sighed. This was like when Hawkeye tried to get him to swap letters when the kid wrote to him that he was little more than a murderer. Hawkeye looked for the easy way out. Hawkeye could be so direct with surgery, and other emotions of others, but when it came to himself he needed to find an answer.

"Hawkeye," Hawkeye sat down eagerly next to Father sitting backwards on a chair. "I think you don't even know how you feel about Sarah. If I might make a suggestion, you might need to figure out if the accusation is even true. Because I think you don't even know that yourself. I'm sorry I can't help you more."

0o0o0o0o0o

"BJ?" Sarah walked into the Swamp. "Have you seen Hawkeye?"

"He said he was going over to see Father Mulchay." He said looking over Sarah. She seemed worn and frazzled. "He's hurting you know."

"Has he talked to you?" Sarah looked over at him. "Or is he blaming himself? Can he not face you because you'll be my-" She looked over for anyone. "grandfather?" She whispered.

"He walked out before I could talk to him. But he was going to see Father." BJ went back to darning his socks. Sarah finally had figured this was a nervous habit of his.

"You're nervous." She said, voicing what they both felt.

"So are you."

It was undeniably true.

0o0o0o0o0o

"_Get out of here!" Their captain had issued an order. The redheaded medic hesitated. "Leave!" He commanded again. "I'll buy you time!" _

_The three medics looked at each other. "Go, you've got to get this man out of here. The closest MASH is three miles away. Keep low and close to bushes." The men started to leave, but the one said, "Captain, we can all get out of here, please come with us!" _

"_Give this to my girl." The captain handed him a letter. "I'll follow you, but just in case…" He trailed off. "Go!" _

_The last of the medics took one end of the stretcher and left. Right as they left the building they heard a cry in Korean, but then a barrage of bullets ensued. They didn't dare look back, but kept going to they could hide. And then they hit the dirt. _

_The redheaded medic looked south. They needed to get to that MASH unit for safety. He looked north one last time to stretch his eyes to see their captain. But he saw no one. He was afraid that Captain B. Tuttle was dead. _

0o0o0o0o

He didn't look at her. And she could not face him. But here they stood next to the river waiting for her to speak. Her voice was near breaking, but she had to speak.

Her voice to him was unsteady, but determined as if she needed to speak. "If I have given you any reason to believe that I cared for you in anymore than I intended then I am sorry."

_No! It was all me. I wanted your actions to mean something more! _His heart was crying to say, but his head kept him silent. "I know that, yesterday, before you found out about me, at the Officer's Club, that I was thinking straight, but it wasn't-I mean is- I"

He took turned to look at her. Her eyes looked at him trying to make him understand. He took her wrists. "What Abel said was true. You are unlike anyone I have ever met. You care for me as me. For a long time I've just been with nurses because we were both lonely, away from home. But you, you're so- full of passion. I didn't see that at the very first, in fact I was inclined to think like Charles, but you _listened_ and cared about what I thought. And I took advantage of our friendship and tried to make it something more, even though I knew you were engaged. I was first jealous of Ben because well, he and you have it all and I don't. And then I wished I was Ben, not because he was engaged, but because he had you; for all of his life, to spend time with, to care for, to grow old together. I envied, no I hated Ben. But then I couldn't."

She looked at him. Her eyes shrouded, but he needed to say this. "Because if you didn't have Ben, you would be unhappy. So I didn't want to sabotage what you had. I tried to convince myself that I didn't like you until Abel said something. And then I realized I had to face it. When you danced with me, I knew you were thinking of Ben, but I-I took advantage of it. I'm so sorry." He dropped her wrists. "And what's worst even though I found out not only that you're engaged to another man, but my own grandson, I can't…" He could finish. He felt a tear slide down through his unshaven face. Then he felt a finger, light as a feather, wipe it away. She was smiling at him weakly.

"Every woman needs a friend who wants the best for her, and she never forgets it. And they're always her friend forevermore afterwards. She doesn't forget."


	23. Chapter 23

She was packing her things

A/N: I know putting a song inbetween POV's and situations is a very old thing, but this song I think describes how BJ is feeling. This song like these characters do not belong to be. I'd be in on the money if I did. All to Fox and the one and only Carrie Underwood and her CD Carnival Ride.

_It was two weeks after the day she turned eighteen  
All dressed in white  
Going to the church that night  
She had his box of letters in the passenger seat  
Sixpence in a shoe, something borrowed, something blue_

She was packing her things. Carefully she tore down what she had so easily put up. The Colonel, in agreement with Margaret, was allowing her to move back with the Major. She was so appreciative. She tried to pack before her soon to be former bunkmates came back from dinner. She wanted to put off the confrontation. So many things buzzed in her mind that she mentally stepped back and tried to sort out the tangled mess. First, less than twenty-four hours ago she was told that they enemy was on her. Next, her grandparent and the past found out about her. Then a crazed nurse tried to send her fiancé a lie, which then spilled a confession from Hawkeye about his love for her. Not to mention that the differences between Hawkeye and Ben were starting to melt. She was having a difficult time differentiating one from the other. She hung her head. She needed to sleep. She needed to be able to have her brain in working order. She needed to get as physically away as possible from Hawkeye until she could think things through.

_This is stupidity_. A little voice said in her head. _You are thousands of miles, not to mention years away from home, your life is at stake and here you are worrying about something that good sleep will cure._ Sarah hated when she did this, argue with her own self. It was completely pointless because she only told herself things that she already knew. She took a sip of the martini she got from the still, terrible as ever. She was swearing off liquor for a while now, so she could stay focused on the danger ahead, but one drink wouldn't hurt.

Hawkeye had understood. They had talked about this. He had said he would tell the others. She had felt that she should tell them, but she was in no position to argue. Her brain was telling her in a dreamy voice_: sleep…sleep…sleep_. She was trying to resist until she was packed and crashed in Margaret's room. It was so tempting to just lay down here and fall asleep. But there it was for the best that she moved.

She lugged her trunk across the compound. She found Margaret's tent. She smiled, Margaret had set up her cot for her. _Thanks Margaret_. Margaret actually had a sort of bed, but right now a cot would do. She curled stripped to just a large t-shirt and men's shorts and promptly fell asleep.

_She put her veil down  
Trying to hide the tears  
Oh she just couldn't believe it  
She heard trumpets from the military band  
And the flowers fell out of her hand_

"Wanna talk about it?" BJ was yet again darning again the very same sock. Hawkeye though it incredible that BJ could stretch out of process he must've of done more than meatball surgery in his time here.

"No"

"Are you angry with her?"

"No"

"Did you force her to move out?"

"No"

"Is all you can say is no?"

"No"

"See that's all you can say!" BJ tried to make it light-hearted, but the fish didn't bite the bait. Hawkeye just turned over in his bunk. He sobered up.

"Did she say why she wanted to move in with Margaret?"

"Yes." Hawkeye sat up. "She said she felt it better that she moved out of here, so we'd be apart. She-she seemed afraid that I might try something."

_That's it_. BJ immediately saw what was bothering Hawkeye, besides the obvious. He also felt pretty sure that wasn't it. "I don't think so."

"Yeah? Then what was it?" Hawkeye looked at him directly those blue eyes looking like they'd like to believe him, but in reality don't. BJ took a long breath. "Close your eyes and relax and imagine." Hawkeye did so accordingly. "You're engaged to Sarah. You proposed, she's your forever and blissfully happy. You can't believe it. Then by a twist of fate you both are separated for a prolonged amount of time and you can only see her sparingly and for very short periods of time. Then where you're staying there's a girl identical to Sarah. Same body, voice, eyes, and almost the same mannerisms in fact except that the fact that you've never met before she's basically the same and she's right there." BJ paused remembering with guilt his own tryst, an accident, but Hawkeye had helped him through. "But you've been spending a lot of time with her, in fact basically living with in the same space. You even become friends and dance together. Soon, the longer time you're away from Sarah it's hard telling a part your fiancée from the girl. And the girl feels strongly about you. What do you do?"

"I-" Hawkeye stopped. What would he really do? Then he saw it. "I'd distance myself."

"Exactly." But it wasn't BJ who said it. Hawkeye turned around. Sideny Freedman was standing in the doorway of the Swamp. "BJ, you should become a psychiatrist."

"Only crazy people do that." BJ grinned, but inwardly felt that he and Hawkeye just missed an important moment by a fraction of the second.

"ATTENTION! WOUNDED MAN IN THE COMPOUND! No helicopter or ambulance folks four guys are carrying him in on a stretcher. It doesn't look good folks."

_Baby why'd you leave me  
Why'd you have to go?  
I was counting on forever, now I'll never know  
I can't even breathe  
It's like I'm looking from a distance  
Standing in the background  
Everybody's saying, he's not coming home now  
This can't be happening to me  
This is just a dream_

Pain exploded through his mind. Benjamin hit the floor. He was bleeding. The medical part of his brain fought for control. He yelled for help, and soon patterings of feet came towards him. Colonel Potter was the first to find him.

"Good grief! Ben, what the hell are you doing back here?" Then he saw the wound on his side. "McIntyre, get in here! Winchester!"

Ben croaked. "BJ…she'll think I'm…dead…sent a man to…give her letter."

"Shut up, Ben. We've got to save you first. Let's get him in the ER. Stat." Joan snipped. "God, hurry up."

"I'll take this, Joan. The Colonel and I can handle this." Emerson Winchester smiled at her suggestively. "And maybe later…"

"Maybe later you can confess to Father your sins, he suppose to be making his rounds again this week. Besides someone gotta tell my best friend that her wedding is still on and I'm waiting for her to get home to be my maid of honor of honor or matron depending on who gets married first." She kissed him. "You told your grandfather yet?"

"He's been on a cruise. Besides, I've got better things to do."

_Is it true your grandfather was more of a snob in the fifties?_ She wanted to ask. But she didn't. She had a mission and duty to her best friend.

A few moments later while she was preparing to go, the Colonel came and stopped her. "Don't go, Joan."

Joan's heart skipped a beat. "What do you mean?"

"He lost too much blood and he's too weak to operate on because of the time travel. Don't go until we can definitely give BJ an answer. Besides, when he's strong enough we need someone specialized in belly wounds. Winchester is a chest cutter."

"I should go now! She needs to know he isn't dead?" Joan protested.

"Yeah? What if Ben dies while you're gone? What do you say then? That would be more blowing than saying he's dead and end it there. If you allow her to believe like that she'll be more crushed."

_It's like I'm looking from a distance  
Standing in the background  
Everybody's saying, he's not coming home now  
This can't be happening to me  
This is just a dream_

"Sir?" It was one of the enlisted men that stopped him. "Is he going to be okay?"

"A few days of rest shall do him good." Hawkeye put on a cheerful face in order not to show how close the wounded man had come close to dying.

The man looked visibly relieved. "We were all so close." He murmured. Hawkeye listened. "So close. He was the last wounded man, but we couldn't wait for an ambulance. The enemy lines were almost on top…" He broke off. "Is Dr. Black here? She's blonde, tall-"

Hawkeye looked at his watch. It was nine o'clock. "Can it wait 'til morning? She's sleeping."

The man looked pained. "No, it can't. I have to speak to her."

Hawkeye felt a sense of foreboding. "Where did you say you guys came from?"

"The Aid Station."

His mouth went dry. "I'll take you to her."

_The preacher man said let us bow our heads and pray  
Lord please lift his soul, and heal this hurt  
Then the congregation all stood up and sang the saddest song that she ever heard_

Sarah was roused from her sleep by Hawkeye's voice. "Sarah, wake up."

She awoke and looked at the clock. Nine o'clock at night? Could people not let her sleep? Mumbling incoherently she got up. "One minute" She called. She put on a robe in order not to shock someone. Honestly, the fifties were such prudes. She opened the door. She was met with a grave Hawkeye and a man next to him who looked worse for wear. He was mud splattered and haggard. The man took off his helmet respectfully, "Dr. Black?"

"Yes, come in."

She sat down on Margaret's bed so they wouldn't come in and sit down on it. "Please sit down."

"Thank you ma'am." The man stared at her, until he caught himself. "I'm sorry ma'am, but the Captain gave such a great description of you, I'd think I'd known for you for years."

"Ben?" Her heart leapt into throat, and she grew excited. "How is he? When he will be back from the front?"

The man sighed heavily. "Ma'am do you know how I got here today?"

She sensed something bad was happening. She was scared. "No, I was sleeping."

"Me and the boys had one last patient comin' through and he was wounded bad. He needed to be moved soon. Well all of a sudden, the Captain spotted North Korean soldiers comin' towards us. There were no more ambulances or helicopters to get the outta there. It looked like the end. And the C'tain-" He broke off crying. She was frozen she couldn't say anything. She was numb. She had to hear what happened.

"He-he told us to make a run for it. I-I didn't want to go, but it was an order. He said he'd hold them off. He'd catch up with us, but just in case he told me to give you this letter." He withdrew a tattered envelope. "I'm so sorry, ma'am. He-"

It didn't matter what he said anymore. She knew it. She choked, crying. _No, it couldn't be true_. They were going to be together for forever. But a one look at the letter in her hand told it her it had to be true.

_Then they handed her a folded up flag  
And she held on to all she had left of him  
Oh, and what could have been  
And then the guns rang one last shot  
And it felt like a bullet in her heart_

He was holding her. His arm around her gently as she cried, rocking her softly on the bed in an age old movement for comfort, murmuring in a comforting tone incoherent sentences as well as silence as she wept as if there was nothing left to live for. He, too, shed tears, although silent for the man he had met so briefly and at one time had ardently wished to be. Now there were no such feelings. He felt like he would give up his right hand just for her to have Ben again.

Her crying would hush for a few moments as he still gently rocked her back and forth as if a child whose dolly had been lost, and then she would begin to cry loudly for some time. Then as if trying to compose herself she would quiet for a period of time and then begin again as if some memory had burned her heart.

Then letter was still in her hand. She hadn't opened it, but she held on to it like it was all she had left to him. Then, she spoke.

"We had our lives planned out, you know? It was me and him until the end. We were going to grow old together. We couldn't agree where to have the wedding, in Crabapple Cove or in California. It seems so stupid now." She began to cry again. Hawkeye just listened.

"We were going to stay with the military so we could see the world together since we figured after we served. Our kids would go to the government schools since there some of the best in this goddamn country. Ben wanted that. He said it would be best if we stayed in for a little while. We owe them eight years because they paid for our college. Neither of us thought…" She broke off, she couldn't go on. She looked up at him for the first time. Hawkeye looked at her; she seemed older, the sadness etched into her face. "You don't need to stay. I think I'm going to lay down. I need time…alone."

He released her from his arms, uncertain of leaving her alone in this state. He would find Margaret immediately so she could stay with her. He sensed BJ needed another woman.

He didn't even notice that in his mind he had begun to call her BJ instead of Sarah.

_Baby why'd you leave me  
Why'd you have to go?  
I was counting on forever, now I'll never know  
I can't even breathe_

She left her room. She couldn't sleep anyway. She went down to the river, in her robe and pajamas. She didn't care if every man in Korea saw her. She just didn't care. Every step seemed like a wound she couldn't prevent, she couldn't bind up, that seemed impossible it would heal.

She remembered first coming to this river, when it had been complete ice. She had been drawn, but afraid of it at the same time. Now the murmuring of the running water soothed her soul like every comfort word hadn't been able to.

She heard someone behind her. She didn't care. She didn't move. The person came down and sat down beside her. An arm came around her. She looked up to see her grandfather sitting besides her looking into her eyes. They told her to take as much time as she needed. He would be there until she was ready.

And so they stayed.

_It's like I'm looking from a distance  
Standing in the background  
Everybody's saying, he's not coming home now  
This can't be happening to me_


	24. Chapter 24

"What do you mean you didn't find him

"What do you mean you didn't find him?" The aide was not a cowardly man, but even with the menacing voice coming from the translator, let alone the man himself, made him take a step back. Unwilling to be intimidated he continued, "My men closed in on him, and he was wounded, we think, but vanished as we advanced. We can give no other explanation. We had cut off all ways of leaving. It is very unlikely that he escaped."

The translator relayed the message over to the man and his cronies. They conversed momentarily and a shadow seemed to cross their faces for a moment and then a look of comprehension, which the aide could not understand. The man had vanished in thin air! Finally the translator spoke. "Sir, men do not vanish into thin air. We are extremely upset that such a task could have amounted into such an enormous challenge. Good-day."

The men left. Speaking in Arabic, one of the men swiftly said, "He is probably dead."

"No doubt, or severely injured."

"It would be easy to take him out of the picture now."

"He is no longer a threat."

"And the girl?"

"If these fools cannot find her, we will."

"And in the mean time?"

"We wait"

0o0o0o0o0o

Charles was waiting for him at the airport. He smiled at his old friend. Despite the circumstances that they were in, he was always happy to see Charles, especially since BJ had died and Charles was the one who had slept, ate and worked with them. Oh, Margaret, Klinger, Radar, they had all been there, but it wasn't the same. Despite their differences they were friends. Now, not being in such close proximity to each other had erased more the arguments, and growing older and going through the war had taught them that time was short. BJ was already gone.

Charles was as tall as ever, but certainly much stouter than before. He also leaned heavily on a cane, since knee surgery on both knees. Only wisps of his hair remained. Every time he saw Charles he was thankful that he still had a head of hair, although it had been gray for decades now.

"Charles, you didn't send your chauffeur, I see, but decided to come meet me personally. I feel honored." He smiled. He extended his hand warmly.

"Crude and boorish as usual, I see, Pierce." But years had softened the proud voice of his, and emotions, besides indignation, had learned to be expressed more easily.

"Have you gone to the bank yet?" He wanted to waste no time. He had waited for Charles to get back from his anniversary for almost a month now, and in a sense he had been waiting fifty years. Not that this had consumed his thoughts for fifty years, but they had decided to wait and see if they could change things, from the way they went down.

"No…I wanted to wait for you. I wanted to talk to you about it."

"All right."

On to the car they spoke pleasantries, bantering with each other, trying to ease the tension, like they once did in the operating room. But both felt that in some ways they'd rather than be back in that room.

"How is Em? Is he still going strong with Joan?"

"Yes. I think he is thinking about offering her a proposal of marriage" The tone was undefined. "I think he's afraid of bringing it up with me."

Em was Charles's only grandson. Charles had brought him up, because his parents had died. He and his wife, both did.

"You still regret it don't you, Charles?"

"Everyday. I wish we hadn't been so stubborn as not to talk to me, and then I didn't see them until they were dead, and my grandson was an orphan." His voice broke. When his son had first brought up the idea of him marrying a certain girl, he had refused to see her, and threatened to disinherit him. Honoria, had reminded him about her almost marriage to the Italian, and he remembered. But it was too late. His son had run off with his girl, got married, and refused to speak to him again. A year and a half later, his grandson was parentless, and he took him in. Hawkeye knew it hurt him badly. Yes, when he was around anyone from Korea, his name was Hawkeye again.

They got in the car. Charles was a brave one to drive through Boston's traffic.

Hawkeye said something, "I thought if we ever had to do this, BJ would be with us. I could have sworn that, that day it was him, but…"

"Much has changed since then."

"I don't even know if Ben's alive. We never did find out. God, my emotions had changed since then. Ben back then was just a distant person, and Sarah- BJ was more important, but now Ben's my grandson." He paused for a moment. His grandson meant the world to him. "My grandson…I think I'm the one who fired the shot."

Charles looked at him incredulously. "But all of swore that we thought it was BJ. We only ever did see him for a moment. You would never fire a shot. You still wouldn't. You swore you never would."

There was a heavy silence. "That was before I had children and grandchildren."

The weight of this sentence was long pondered as they were stuck in rush hour traffic. Finally Charles spoke again. "Hawkeye, there is something that I must know for certain before we embark on our woeful journey."

Hawkeye looked at him expectantly. Charles was silent for a moment. "Did you and Sarah have a…romantic liaison?"

Hawkeye looked away out the window at the urban landscape for a few moments. "It shouldn't have happened. Now, all I can think about is how I hurt my grandson in unimaginable ways. How I, his grandfather, took advantage of his girl when she was tipsy, emotional, and needed comfort. It's so sick and wrong. It was sick then, too, I like a fool didn't realize it. Afterwards she was so upset, distraught and more in need than ever, but she couldn't…really ever trust me again. After that, she only really took great comfort in BJ's companionship more than anyone else's. Until they came, you know, Em and Joan."

"Did BJ ever become upset with you about this?"

Hawkeye shook his head with frustration. "I don't know. For a man who could see everyone else so clearly, just like his granddaughter, is sometimes impossible to read. I don't think he did. He's the only one who really knows what went down between Sarah and I. At first, he was. But later, things changed, as he put it, we were both adults, whether she was his granddaughter or not."

They were there. In Charles usual style, he demanded to see his safe box at once. Hawkeye rolled his eyes. Typical Charles.

But in the box there is a receipt. A receipt that says that this box was opened twenty-eight years ago by a Dr Hunnicut. And with it there is a little note in a familiar handwriting. One neither of the two men standing there have seen for over a decade.

0o0o0o0o0o

"They say you haven't been yourself, Sarah." She frowned. She hated that name now. She couldn't stand being called Sarah anymore. It was all part of a lie. A lie that got Ben killed. "They say when you first heard the news about Ben, you stayed in your room for two days, and you rarely came out. Not even to eat. This is normal. It hurts to lose a love one. But then you did come out? Did someone force you to?"

She couldn't believe she was having this conversation. Tears came to her eyes again. "Am I am not allowed to grieve in this place? Is it wrong to show emotion? The man I loved just died!" She rolled up underneath her blanket again, turning away from Sidney. When she quieted down again in a quiet voice she said, "Why did I come out? Nobody forced me to. But there was wounded, and I had to keep my promise to Ben. I didn't want to, but we made a promise."

"What promise was that?" Sarah rolled over in her cot to face Sidney again. He looked genuinely concerned. "The promise that every doctor makes, that medicine comes before our personal lives. Ben and I always agreed that we would do so. So I'm honoring our promise. But there is no wounded now to take care of, no organs to fix, so please just leave me alone. I want to sleep."

"Why don't you want to talk to me? Or to Hawkeye, or Margaret, or almost anyone else, Sarah? Something is bothering you, isn't?"

"The only people I could possibly wish to speak to are God, my best friend, and my older brother. So please leave me _alone_!" The last word she almost shouted. Then she regretted her outburst. "I'm sorry, Sidney, but please leave me alone."

"For now" Sidney sensed it was time to leave. He wasn't going to get her talk to him anymore. On his way out he called back in. "Open the letter, Sarah"

The letter? She couldn't open the letter. She took it out from underneath her pillow. She smelled it. It still smelled like him, faintly. It was quickly fading. Opening the letter would mean admitting he was dead. She couldn't do that. Not yet.

0o0o0o0o0o

Sidney went back to report to the waiting worried people in the Colonel's office. "She's grieving. And she can't come to terms with his death. I think she knows it to be true, but she doesn't want to believe it. So she won't open the letter. But she's not going to commit suicide."

"She's not?" Visible relief was shown up on everyones' faces.

"She cares too much. She has what I nickname the bleeding heart syndrome. If someone is hurt emotionally or physically she's going to push away her own pain and help them with theirs."

"What's wrong with that?"

"She never comes to terms with it. I think she needs to speak with some family member. What were her words again?" He looked down at his clipboard. "'The only people I could possibly wish to speak to are God, my best friend, and my older brother. So please leave me _alone_!' I think that explains it."

"Colonel Potter, sir?" A corporal came in timidly. "Two officers are here to see you. They say it's urgent. "

"Send them in," glancing at the rest of the group he said, "Sorry gang."

"Sarah's emotional state is only hanging by a thread." Hawkeye said with a jab.

Two people entered the room. One was a woman who had a massive amount of sandy curls in pony tail. She had amber eyes and an ovalish face. The man had brown hair, a tall stocky type. Hawkeye knew immediately who they were. At least he thought he did. He looked sideways and saw that Charles did too. Grandkids kept popping up everywhere.

"Colonel Potter?" The woman addressed the Colonel, since he was behind his desk. Nodding, she and the man saluted. "My name is Captain Joan McIntyre."

"Major Emerson Wind"

"What can I do you for?" The colonel stood up to and saluted. Klinger snorted. "Army career people."

"Klinger!" Colonel reprimanded sharply. "Captain, Major, I apologize."

A funny look had crossed their faces when the Colonel had asked what he could do for them. When Sarah was feeling somewhat better, Hawkeye planned to ask her what it meant in the future.

"Does Sarah Black work here? I am her best friend, and the minute I heard, I came to see her. Em, here, also is a friend of Sarah's. We both came."

"Praise be to God, thank goodness you've came." Father Mulchaly stretched out his hand. "Sarah has been asking for you."

"How is she? What has she been acting like?" Joan asked at once.

"She's shut us all out, after her initial outburst. She kept to her room for two days, but then we got wounded. She came out to work, but she won't talk about it. She's keeping it in." BJ said. He looked at her intensely.

"Oh, crap."

They all looked at Emerson. "Wrong thing to do." He said immediately. "You let her bottle it up? You should have made her talk from the first, to get it out. Not bottle it up."

"Any suggestions?" 

"Yeah." Joan said. "Let me talk to her. And don't interfere. You are gonna here one hell of an explosion for B-Sarah in a few."

"In a few?" Klinger asked puzzledly.

"Minutes" She explained.

"One other thing, Captain"

"Do you know a Trapper John McIntrye? He's from Boston, and he kinda had an accent like yours. In fact you both sort of look alike."

"Trapper?" She laughed. "You have no idea."

0o0o0o0o0o

_Dear Hawk and Charles,_

_I know we said we'd do it together, if we did it at all. But when my granddaughter was put into my arms today for the first time I couldn't let her go through that destruction again. It won't be on my conscious._

_And there's something I didn't tell you. The man you saw? Who shot the bullet. That was me. And now I'm going back. Hopefully one day I'll be able to explain to this to you in person. _

_I figured out you can't change the past or her future, but I can prepare her for it. In the meantime, I am going to do what I know I've already done. . Hawk, I want my granddaughter to be happy so that carbon copy of yours needs to live._

_BJ_


	25. Chapter 25

"What do you mean you didn't find him

A/N: The tango dance I'm talking about can be scene on YouTube, just type in Shall we dance? Movie Clip. But any professional tango will give you an idea, especially professional Argentine. It's very sensual. It wasn't very popular in the fifties, and didn't really become very, very sensual until when it was reenergized during the eighties. The one quote is from season five, Hanky Panky when BJ is speaking to Carrie on how she is a lot like Peg. Also, there are a lot of references to older films and even new ones and maybe a few books. If it passes you or don't understand please leave a reply or a PM and I'll make it more clear. Also, I realize that I focus mainly on focus on one part of the story instead of various scenes. Please forgive me, but this part needs to catch up. Tell me if seems choppy to you, I had to cut a lot out. Oh, and the main army hospital for critically wounded soldiers is in Germany. They fly them once stable.

"Get up."

"No"

"Brianna Jennifer Hunnicut you get your ass out of bed or so help me God you will wish in the hands of the North Koreans."

BJ shifted in her bunk to see her best friend frowning at her. "Joan." She croaked, and then promptly cried again. "Ben is-"

"Get the hell out of bed."

BJ sniffled. "What?"

"You heard me."

"No"

"Yes"

"I won't."

_Good, get angry_. Joan thought. "You have had a whole entire week to cry. You have ignored your friends here, you have ignored even looking decent, and you have people doing your duty, the only goddamn thing you have done is stitch patients back together, but then you don't visit them afterwards? Where is your sense of duty. This is not my best friend; this is some sort of weak idiot who thinks the whole world evolves around her."

BJ's lips barely moved. "I can't."

"You can't what?" Joan's voice was like ice.

"I can't go out there and face them."

"Face who? The people who want to help you? The people who care about you?" Joan pointed to Colonel's office. "They're all in there right now, wondering if you'll be alright."

She dropped her voice. "Or you know what? You're making yourself a sitting target for Al-Qaeda. All they'll have to do is walk in here and erase your future. Their future. Is that what you want? Are you so selfish that everyone else's future will cease to exist too? For someone who use to be so noble you are a real pathetic right now. You're not BJ Hunnicutt, the army doctor who staid behind to save a patient, kicked some terrorists' asses to the other side of Baghdad; you're some sort of shell that stayed behind the minute she heard her fiancé died. Cry. You know what, its okay to cry. What's not okay is to stay basically inside and mope for over a week."

"Shut up." BJ's voice wavered.

"You're telling me to shut up? Why? Because you can't face the truth? Because you like being fed lies? Being treated like a baby? 'Cause let me tell you somethin' Brianna-"

"Don't call me Brianna." Her voice sounded a bit stronger.

"What would you prefer? Bitch?" Joan fired back. "Because right now that's what you sound like. Bitch Jackass Hunnicutt. You don't deserve the same name as your grandfather. You know what-"

She was on her feet. "Don't say anything about my grandfather."

"Like what? How you should've been home when your grandfather died? How you threw yourself into a relationship so you could try and outrun your own feelings? How you broke Charles's heart? But thankfully he's got me now."

_Wham. Smack._ That's right. Joan blocked and sent one right back at her. They had taken karate together, and coupled with military training, and a few tricks from the Marines they made a formidable team, or dangerous opponents.

"Charles broke mine! We always argued! Aaah!" She grunted as Joan tried to hook one. She fell into a combat role, and in doing so went outside the tent. "And you listen, I told you- dropping boys and hanging on a string like that made you look like a snob and a slut a one time. I got sick of covering for you-"

It was all coming out. Joan was falling. Quickly she threw her legs out to trip BJ, so they would both fall. Otherwise it was over. "You were always jealous of me admit it! If you hadn't been so caught up in golf, and ballroom dancing you might have had more boyfriends. You just had those geeks that-"

0o0o0o0o

"How are you acquaintance with Sarah?" Charles asked Emerson. He had a thousand questions running through his mind, but he kept calm. He was Winchester. He did not panic.

The officers of 4077th had been doing small talk, and had asked open-ended questions which he answered well, but without giving too many details, but rather deflected most questions. To the last question a wry smile came to his face. Should he tell them the truth? He looked at them searchingly. He shrugged.

"We go way back. I knew slightly as a teenager, but I got to know her more seriously the summer that she graduated from high school."

That got a surprise. "You're older?" Hawkeye wanted to know.

"Yes. I'm thirty-one. She's twenty-eight as is Joan."

Suddenly these guys were all nosy about his personal life. Em felt himself on the defense. "Am I too old for you gentlemen's taste?" He asked acidly.

"Well, you know me, I just like younger men." Quipped Hawkeye.

"Sarah is an old flame of yours, isn't she?" Margaret said. "I can tell. That's why you didn't want to see her." She got angry. "You must think this is your big chance to win her back or-"

"Hold it!" Colonel Potter interrupted. "Margaret, stop jumpin' to conclusions. Let the man talk. I'm sorry, Major –we are a little protective of Sarah, she's part of the family now."

If Emerson found this ironic in anyway he didn't let on. "It's all right, Colonel. And yes, Major, Sarah and I were together for a little while. But that was almost ten years ago. I can definitely say I'm over her and her me. We have found that it easier to be friends. And I'd cut off my right hand than steal his girl." He couldn't remember what they called Ben here.

"You knew Jonathan?" _That_ was his name, but he scrambled up a reply. "Yes, one of the best men I ever knew." He smiled. "He looks a lot like you, Hawkeye."

"So we found out." Hawkeye commented. "I thought I was staring at me in the mirror."

"On a good day." BJ snickered. Hawkeye shot a mock angry look. "Well, you don't look like John Wayne, either."

"Colonel!" Emerson saw a gangly young man who couldn't be a day over twenty run in. "Sarah and this other woman are in a fight. Sarah's yellin' and cryin' and all upset."

"Segearent Rizzo, do not break it up! Tell everyone to not get near them."

"Sir, they're too dangerous to get next to."

"Sir?" Emerson interrupted. "This is the medicine Sarah needed. She bottles to much up. Believe me, if anyone can get Sarah riled, it's Joan."

0o0o0o0o

BJ couldn't believe his eyes. He felt like he was seeing a very angry Peg. He remembered telling Nurse Carrie Carson: "_Just like Peg. She bottles up everything too. I get her in the kitchen and I keep bugging her until she gets angry enough to swing. Then it all comes out: the anger, the tears, the problem_." It seemed everything she hadn't said was coming out in spews. Yet, he saw they were doing. Joan, was obviously more skilled one, was keeping from hurting Sarah, but provoking her both mentally and physically. She baited her with everything. She was refusing to win, but keeping it going until Sarah let it all out. Actually, he was pretty certain her name was Brianna. After that night when she told him, he would whisper a name or two in the middle of the night to see if she would shift or respond in someway.

In a minute it was over. Everyone was standing there gaping as if they could not possible imagine such a volcano inside of Sarah. Finally, Sarah hit Joan square in the jaw shoving her to the ground. Joan began to laugh uncontrollably. Then, reality seemed to hit Sarah.

"You set me up." There was a flat accusation in the voice.

"Yeah, and I'm glad I've got my best friend back too, instead of that mopey be-yoch. Now, help me up." They stood up. After a moment, Sarah and Joan hugged and then both of them cried. But this time there would be no depression afterwards. BJ sensed that this is what Sarah had needed. And she finally had it.

0o0o0o0o

"Conference in Tokyo? A week?" Colonel Potter was frustrated. "Listen, Corporal, we're a MASH unit. We can't give up two doctors for a when we know we're going to be hit hard by causalities. And besides, the doctors you ask me to send are impossible. One just lost their fiancé! The other is our best surgeon- what? Yes, I understand, and of course I want them to be the best they can be- Corporal, get me your commanding officer on the on line, pronto!... Sam? It's Sherm. Listen, we're expecting wounded, and you're saying that two of my doctors need to go to Tokyo for a medical conference? Yes, I understand you have new procedures, but if I don't have them here, more kids are going to die. And the fact is the ones that are due to come, and that you've mandated to come are the ones that need to stay! You've got my best surgeon coming and you've got one who just lost her fiancé! What's that? Yes, she's a woman. But she a good damn surgeon and I need her. Her best friend left her unit just to help her through and you're pulling her into Tokyo."

"Colonel, Em and I could take their places." A voice came from behind him. "It would be good for Sarah to go to Tokyo."

"Hold on Sam," Colonel Potter turned to Joan. "Are you out of your mind?"

"No sir, but if you excuse my forwardness, I think it best she goes."

0o0o0o0o

"You're going to the officer's club tonight."

"Joooooan" Brianna moaned. "I don't feel like dancing."

"Too bad"

"You would do the same for me. So until you can think and work properly yourself, I'm doing it for you."

"Joan, you haven't worked properly you're whole life."

"Oh, yeah? How'd I get this on my finger then?" Joan waved a sparkling ring underneath her nose.

Brianna smiled for the first time in what seemed like forever. "That's fantastic. I see the two flirts fell for each other, and then finally decided to tie the knot."

"When we get outta here babe, you're going to be my bridesmaid."

"Only if you don't turn into Bridezilla and make me where some heinous dress." It was the first joke too. They both had seen 27 Dresses together in Iraq together. It was funny though. It had been the reverse then. BJ had been telling Joan the hideous dress she would make her wear. Now it seemed it would be the opposite.

"Speaking of dresses, look at what I brought you." Joan pulled out a dress from her suitcase. It was a simple dress, without sparkles or adornments, but BJ wasn't fooled. Some of the most elegant dresses were simple, and this one fit the bill. But it wasn't just elegant, it was…sexy. It was a jet black that went down to her knees and had spaghetti straps. It reminded her of that dress the mom wore from the remake of The Parent Trap. Back when Lindsay Lohan was still a good girl.

"No" BJ said flatly. "Have you forgotten that this is the fifties? I'll look like some sort of loose woman."

"Well, Scarlett O'Hara, you've already been seen brawling, you're unethically a doctor, and your friend says you must. So put it on. And loose all the fifties expressions. They are getting on my nerves."

"Crazily enough, we're in the fifties." She slipped on the dress. Despite not feeling like dancing or dressing up she could not deny she looked good. Really good. She looked at herself critically in the mirror. There were circles underneath her eyes, despite being in bed except for two days in the OR. She, unlike most characters in books did not look ten years older just because she lost someone. She still looked like Brianna Jennifer Hunnicut, just sadder, less defiant than usual. She put on concealer, mascara, and the greatest thing of all, lip gloss. The fifties women wore to much red lipstick for her taste. She put on a shawl, a black one with embroidered flowers on the end and fringes.

She looked around to see Joan using a straightener. "Joan, how exactly are you going to plan on explaining your curly hair is now straight?"

"Magic" BJ rolled her eyes. Just like Joan.

0o0o0o0o

They were in the officers club. Of course, this was hardly a surprise, but Joan had told them they could expect Sarah and her there at eight o'clock. BJ was munching on pretzels. He hadn't had a drink yet, and neither had Hawkeye. BJ was thinking hazily. His thought, as they often were, were on his wife. Usually those thoughts were accompanied by the thought of his little girl, Erin, but not tonight. Tonight he was dreaming up, what he had done a great deal of lately, of how Brianna came to be. He obviously had a son. BJ wondered what kind of son he would have. Would he be a doctor like him? Would he have more than two children? What sort of person was Brianna's mother? Was she a respectable woman? Would she love his son as much as he was sure that his son loved her? Did, in the future, Brianna spend lots of time with him? Would he inspire her to become the doctor that she was now? Would Peg go into grief like Brianna had today when he died, or if the future changed, and he died in the war? Would she have someone like Joan to get her on her feet again? BJ knew these were what-ifs. Things he could not see. He looked sideways at Hawkeye, who too, was in his own little world. "Penny for your thoughts" BJ said with a small smile.

Hawkeye gave him a cynical look. "Oh, I was just thinking how I like, if not more, a dead man's fiancée, who also happens to be my grandson's fiancée. And if that's not enough, I'm going to Tokyo tomorrow with her alone. She's so alone, so strong and yet so-" He trailed off.

"Vulnerable." BJ supplied. Hawkeye looked at him. "Yeah.

"What's yeah?" Emerson sat down. "The girls will be here in a bit. Joan is still trying to convince Sarah to dress up."

Hawkeye leaned over and so BJ did likewise. "All right, Charles let's cut the crap."

Em didn't take the bait. "My name is Em."

"Yeah, and we know who you are."

"As well as Joan." BJ supplied.

"Do you?" Em didn't even blink. "Well, gentlemen, as my grandfather is fond of saying. If you do know who I am and where I'm from, then you'll understand its best to keep mum about this until we're alone."

"Alone with Hawkeye? I wouldn't trust him for a minute." Charles sat down. "Really, Em, if you ever wish to, what do you call it again, ah yes, 'wheel and deal' with these two cretins then I suggest you have a gun in one hand and cash in the other."

"Well, Charles, everything was going swimmingly until you showed up."

Before Charles could retort, a few wolf-whistles brought there attention to the front. Joan and Sarah had arrived. Em sprung up and offered one arm to each of the ladies like a gentleman. "Ladies, you look beautiful tonight."

"Thanks, Em." Brianna smiled. "You can blame your fiancée for that one. But she's the real knockout."

Em didn't need to be told that. Brianna could tell that he was zeroed in on Joan. Not that it mattered. She was sure Ben had done the same thing to Joan at one point or another.

She saw BJ, Hawkeye, Charles all sitting at the table. They were looking stunned. She sat down nervously. "Do I look inappropriate?" She asked anxiously.

"No" Hawkeye answered. All Charles said, "If you were in Boston you would still be the reigning beauty over all of them. As well and Joan here." He added quickly.

She blushed. She knew this was a great honor from Charles to be acceptable in Boston. She had been uncertain over the bare shoulder, but if they thought nothing was wrong. "BJ?"

He seemed surprised that she asked. He looked at her for a moment. "I am glad to see look happy again."

Fair enough. No grandfather wanted his granddaughter to look she was a business woman. But his eyes told her the truth of his words. She smiled for him. "Thank you."

Em led Joan out on the dance floor almost immediately. Joan had no appitude for ballroom dancing, but Em did. Brianna smiled remembering when they use to compete together. Ben could dance, but not like a pro. He and Joan use to stick together as Em and her would sweep the floor. Especially Latin. But when she looked into Em's eyes while dancing, her world didn't turn upside down and inside out. The music would make her heart pound and push her into rhythm, but it wasn't the same.

Emerson came over once the song was done. "Sarah?" She looked up. "They're about to play our song."

Brianna felt aghast. "I don't want to dance." All eyes were on her. She knew what was running through their heads_. She has a song with him? They're not involved!_ "I just…can't. Besides you're an engaged person, now."

"Ben never minded. Joan doesn't." He looked her straight in the eye. "For old times sake."

She looked over at Joan. Joan was nodding furiously. Brianna accepted his hand. Em raised his glass up towards her. "Here's lookin' at you kid."

"Emerson, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

He pulled her to the dance floor. His hand slid around her waist and grasped her hand lightly. The familiar tune slowly played out. As Emerson pulled her closer she was flooded with memories.

You must remember this  
A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh.  
The fundamental things apply  
As time goes by.

"_Your grandma seems to be enjoying herself." Em whispered to her. _

"_Yeah, it was good to bring her to this black and white film festival, here in Boston. Your grandfather is a genius." She laughed. "Don't tell him I said that."_

"_You better not tell him." Emerson said jokingly. "It will go right to his head. But seriously, I guess he figured that Peg just needed to get away from Cali for awhile."_

_BJ sobered up immediately. "Yeah, she did. It's been hard on her." _

_After a few second of silence, Emerson lept up, "Well, let's skip this joint and go see Casablanca. I can only handle so much I Love Lucy."_

_BJ laughed. "All right"_

_His arm went around her shoulders at the movie. That night while watching Charles gallantly lead her grandma to a waltz in the parlor, Em did the same on the terrace to the old tune, As Time Goes By. And there was their first kiss. _

And when two lovers woo  
They still say, "I love you."  
On that you can rely  
No matter what the future brings  
As time goes by.

"I'm happy for you, Em." She looked up Em. "You and Joan" She clarified.

"Yeah, she's amazing, isn't she?"

"Crazy is a better word."

"That too"

"Brianna, there's something you should know."

"Yes?"

"Joan wasn't going to tell you un-"

Just then the music changed. To a very fast mix. Brianna looked up and Emerson was looking very mischievous. "We haven't danced for a long time. I've forgotten what it feels like"

"No" But the music was like a drug. Her heart was already pounding to the music. Trying to refuse she said to Em. "The tango?"

"I thinks its' sexy." Too late. She was already going.

0o0o0o0o

Joan smiled mischievously. She poked Charles next to her. "Watch this. Its going to be good."

It was the song from Shall We Dance? Where J.Lo and the man were alone in the dance room trying to dance. If that scene was tense and frought with restrained passion, then this was beyond. BJ and Em were fantastic dancers and their passion although, not for each other, was for dancing and it was a splendid show. Joan could not believe who BJ turned into on the dance floor. As if a outwardly passionate woman took over BJ's body, and made it her own. Emerson used all his intensity and directed at the music. Joan had once tried connecting with Em that way, but no avail. They just danced modernly together and there, her eyes gleamed with excitement, things really heated up.

Hawkeye wondered if this was the same woman. Passion and intensity radiated off her. He felt like he was seeing Sarah for the first time, or to be more exact the second time. As Emerson's hand slid down her hip and her thigh indignation on Sarah's part, he had seen tango before, but never like this.

BJ could hardly believe this, but in a moment of clarity he saw that although he had tutored Brianna very well in the arts of practical jokes, her true outlet for emotion was dancing. He saw that Peg and Brianna, no matter how similar in other respects were on opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to dancing.

0o0o0o0o

She danced with a few people that night. She had a few drinks. She suspected the reason Emerson and Joan were being light on the alcohol was because they would later dance it the way Joan preferred it. Modern. Break-dance.

"May I have this dance?"

She looked up. It was Hawkeye. He was looking at her most seriously. "Yes"

He placed his hand lightly on her waist and took her hand. Maybe it was the drinks, maybe it was something else, but she took a step closer to him. She laid her head on his shoulder as they gently danced on the floor.

"Thank you." She whispered after a while. Hawkeye stepped back and looked at her quizzically. "What for?"

"Being you, in this crazy time, and I am being a basket case, and-" She felt tears come to her eyes.

"Your welcome."

They were quiet for along time. Then once the dance is over, she was tired and wanted to go to bed. She pulled away from Hawkeye, "Thanks, Hawkeye. It was nice."

She got her glass drained the tankard. She had probably had four or so. She felt slightly tipsy. Picking up shawl she got left the table. "Good night, BJ, Charles" But they weren't listening. They were laughing over something. They just waving while trying not to fall over. They definitely had more than a few drinks.

Joan and Em were somewhere on the floor. She decided to just leave, they would try to detain her. Margaret was somewhere, but hopefully she'd be quiet when she came into their shared tent.

"Leaving? It's not eleven yet." Hawkeye had appeared out of no where. "Oh, what the heck? I'll turn in too. We both leave tomorrow. I'll walk you to your tent." Actually, he had had more to drink than she had so they were both holding on to each other to get to her tent. When they got there she looked at him. "Thanks, Hawkeye. See you in the morning."

Hawkeye looked at her and stepped closer. "Good night."

For a moment their eyes were riveted on each other. Then there was a noise. She stepped back. "Good night"

And she went to bed.

0o0o0o0o0o

"Hey, sexy." Joan got up next to the jeep.

BJ didn't respond. She didn't feel like going along today. Joan sighed. "Well, I've already plotted with Hawkeye. He's going to take you shopping so you can find out how people dress around here, he's going to take you to at least one club, and he's not going to allow you to wallow. And," She pulled out a little slip of paper and put into the BJ's khaki pocket. "Read this when you get to Tokyo. As soon as you get there."

Joan got a determined look on her face. "Look at me, BJ."

BJ looked up surprised, that Joan dared to use her real name. "You need to read that note. It's important, so as soon as you get to T-"

"All right, Sarah time to go." Hawkeye threw his suitcase in the back. He smiled. "Are you ready? Joan, your commands are my wish."

"Yeah, get her out on the dance floor."

BJ's grandfather approached the jeep. He squeezed her hand. "Take care of yourself." He looked up at her and held her gaze riveted. All the things they didn't say were said in a moment. And for a moment, she felt the grandfatherly protectiveness and affection she hadn't felt years.

"I will"

After listening to all of Colonel Potter' s lectures and concern as well as everyone elses' well wished they were on the road to Seoul to catch a plane. They were to meet the cook who went to Seoul to bargain for some edible food to cook, although BJ's opinion he would massacre good food, and he would drive the jeep back.

After a while on the road she decided something. "Hawkeye!" She yelled over the engine. She missed the silence of the her car in the States.

"Yeah?"

"Since we won't be around a lot of other people, call me BJ."

"BJ, then"

"Yep"

0o0o0o0o0o

She stared out the window. From the sky everything looked so peaceful. Despite that she was in a rickety plane in which her claustrophobia came back to haunt her, she could understand why pilots loved flying. To keep her mind off her stupidity- which is how she termed her claustrophobia, because she knew it was all in her mind- she poked Hawkeye.

"Go away, Klinger, it's too early." He mumbled and shifted in his sleep. "I'll hand in my resignation to McArthur later."

"Hawkeye, its Sarah." She poked him again. "Wake up."

He opened his eyes and smiled. "I always knew you'd wake up at my side."

"We're on an airplane, smart one."

"Oh, yeah." She saw that it was all coming back to him where they were. And what had happened. She was slightly relieved though, if Hawkeye could joke with her it made things easier.

"I'm sorry." Wrong move. She didn't want hear an apology. "I didn't mean to-"

"You didn't." She gave him a small smile to show him it was all right. "Its nice to see you can act normally around me. That's the way I like it."

"So the reason you woke up me from my vital beauty sleep was?"

She felt childish. "Tell me a story." She looked out the window again. She felt close to tears again for no reason. She felt like Ben and she should be on a plane home back to Crabapple, not to a medical conference in Tokyo with Hawkeye.

She heard him straightening up in his chair. "What kind of story?"

"Any."

After a few moments he began. He told her of a time when his best friends and he had decided to go fishing in a nearby pond. One of his friends who wasn't the brightest of the bunch managed to get a fish hook in his nose while trying to cast his line. Brianna smiled slightly when he finished. "That's not one of your usual stories."

"What do you mean?"

"You usually tell stories like…Sharon-Share-A-Light, you know the one about the night after prom, or that girl stalks you hoping to catch you eye or how girl were dripping on your-"

"Save a little so I can some little amount of pride."

"What's up?" BJ looked deeply into his eyes, trying to decipher the hidden meaning behind them. They had so many layers to them, as if not to see what he really felt behind them. Her grandfather had once told her, and she found it to be very true, people who are cynical are cynical to hide true feelings.

"Maybe I don't feel like telling them anymore." It dawned on her the meaning of his words. She looked out again. He was trying to change for her, or he had. How could she have let this happen? Her eyes filled again. She was such an emo. _Basket case_, a small voice corrected in the back of her head. In the fifties it was basket case.

"Sarah?"

She blinked back the tears. "Yeah?"

"What does 'what can I do you for' mean in the-where you're from?"

She looked back at him for a moment. For the first time she began to laugh. Scratch that. She began to howl. Her whole body began to double up with laughter. She couldn't remember the last time she really laughed. Finally her laughter turned silent. Tears streamed down her eyes. It was as if every funny moment came back to her in an instant. Everyone on the airplane was looking at her. Hawkeye kept asking her what was so funny. She would calm down just long enough to hear his question and then turn into giggles again.

"Was Colonel Potter talking to Joan?"

0o0o0o0o0o

"What do you mean you only have one room booked?" She demanded. "Didn't you even look on who was coming?"

The clerk did not flinch underneath her gaze. "I apologize, Captain, but usually doctors are male. And the 4077th was allotted one room for the conference. A double. For two doctors. A Dr. Black and Dr. Pierce. And it is mandatory that you stay in this hotel."

This was going nowhere. Forcing herself to keep her cool, she said slowly and deliberately, "Are there any other rooms in this hotel available?"

The man scanned the list and the keys. "No, ma'am."

She looked over to Hawkeye. "If its only one bed, I call it."

0o0o0o0o0o

"BJ?" A restless sleeper tried to shift in his sleep. A nurse restrained him. "Shhh" The nurse said soothingly. "She'll be here."

He kept calling for that woman. Whoever she was, but it was better that he had this stupor than realize he was on a plane to the major army hospital in Linchstuhl, Germany. The patient awoke hazily. "Brianna? Where are you?"

"Shhh. Everything will be fine." She said in whispered tones

"Are you all right? Did they get you?"

"No. I'm fine. Go back to sleep, you need your rest." She hesitated before plunging on. "I've been very worried about you. But you'll be better soon."

"Bri?"

"Yes?"

"When we get back home…" He trailed off, his strength leaving him.

"What is it, darling?" The nurse saw that this was important to him.

"Never leave me again."

The nurse was so overcome, that even she thought her emotions were on ice a long time ago, tears rolled down her cheeks. She wondered where his girl was, the one suppose to be hearing this. She controlled her tears long enough to give an answer.

"Never"

0o0o0o0o0o0

"Sidney!" She waved at the psychiatrist. Hawkeye and she were sitting at a side café. It was so much warmer in Tokyo. She was wearing some stylish fifty clothing, a wide brim hat and, and huge sunglasses. Hawkeye had showed her around and forced to go shopping. She was so surprised that she got in the groove and shopping with Hawkeye was like shopping with a friend. Soon she had bags full of fifties clothing. Her income here wasn't really her true income and she couldn't use it in the future, so as she told Hawkeye, she might as well spend it. She had thrown her khakis underneath the bed, and completely forgetting what Joan had slipped into her pocket.

"Sarah!" Sidney sat down. "And Hawkeye, what a surprise!"

"Hey, Sidney" Hawkeye said. "Are you going to this conference thing too?"

"I'm speaking at it, actually, so don't skip, Hawkeye."

"Oh, how'd you know?" Hawkeye said in a mock whining voice.

"Just a guess" Sidney turned to BJ. "Sarah, how are you?"

She was caught off guard. Hawkeye, she had been training all day to say "BJ" and he had finally got the hang of it. Sidney looked her searchingly. She felt herself crumble a bit. "I am doing my best. Hawkeye has been showing me around Tokyo and doing a bit of shopping.

"Is the outfit new?"

"Yes"

"I'm going to a club tonight. Will you both join me?" BJ looked over at Hawkeye. She felt like she could only do so much in one day. But Hawkeye had already said yes. So she smiled and said yes.

When they got back to the hotel, she sorted through her new clothes. "Hawkeye?"

He came over to the disaster on the bed. "What happen to the bed?"

"Very funny, but be serious for a moment. What do girls in the fifties were to clubs?"

Hawkeye sighed. This was going to be a long night.

0o0o0o0o

Sidney was at the club with a lot of other friends. There was bunch of drinks going around. He looked for Hawkeye and Sarah, but he hadn't seen them. He was slightly disappointed, but it was understandable, Sarah might not want to be seen in public yet.

It was sad. He hated to see any kid lose someone, especially when there life was ahead of them, but after meeting Sarah, so likeable, witty, and talented it seemed to be a waste. And she was a friend. He could only imagine what she felt. There was another twist in her life, though. Hawkeye. He understood a lot about Hawkeye. He might want a real relationship, but kept up having short flings with nurses and business girls from time to time. Sidney, as all psychiatrist, are suppose to let the patients figure out their problems on their own, but sometimes Sidney felt like telling Hawkeye that what he was missing was having a real relationship. Not just centered around one thing.

Then he saw them. Sarah was in a pretty pink dress. It was one of those new fangled styles with straps instead of sleeves and that swing skirt, at least he thought that's what they were called. Hawkeye was in his Class A uniform. Sidney waved them over to their table. Introductions were made and they were seated.

He was embarrassed for his guests, that Sarah immediately became an object of attention. She smiled and thanked all the kind compliments, but refused their offers of a drink of champagne or of being lead on to the dance floor. She was social, but did not flirt or pay anyone considerable attention except for Hawkeye and Sidney. She told stories of her own, but nothing more than what was really expected.

Sidney offered her a dance, and she accepted. She heard all the protests, and to his amusement she said, "Some men have it, and some don't." With a flirtatious smile, no less. As they danced, Sidney said,

"You certainly popular tonight, with my single friends…and the not so single."

"I'm sorry, Sidney, but I'm trying to fly underneath the radar tonight. I-" Sidney interrupted her. "I'm not pushing, Sarah. Not in the least. I'm surprised I got the honor."

"May I cut in?" Hawkeye appeared.

"Certainly"

Hawkeye took BJ's hand. BJ whispered to him. "Thanks for coming to my rescue. Sidney's nice, but I don't feel like being grilled about my feelings right now."

"Then let's just dance."

So they did. One after another, and another. BJ felt like this was her life preserver. She put her head on Hawkeye's shoulder. Finally, one by one Sidney and his friends went home. They continued to dance, sometimes talking, sometimes just in companionable silence until the band played the last song. They finished their drinks and started back to the hotel.

They undressed and got into their pajamas, one getting the room and one the bathroom (BJ got the bathroom). "Hawkeye," she called coming out. "You can have the bed."

"No, you take it."

"Don't be noble, I had it yesterday."

"BJ, I am as stubborn as you are." Hawkeye joked. "Take it."

BJ's resolve was weakening. "Well if you're sure.

"I am."

BJ hesitated for a moment. Then she hugged Hawkeye. "You've done so much for me."

Hawkeye took her hands. "Some great guy is going to see you, and you're going to fall hopelessly in love again. And you're going to get through this." His eyes were full as so were hers. She hugged him tightly and for a long time. Then she stepped back far enough to see him. Their eyes were staring right into each others. Slowly, Hawkeye pressed his lips to hers and she rose to meet him.

0o0o0o0o

They hesitated for only an instant. Then, linking arms the pressed the tiny red button. And as the whirled through time, the small lettering said Tokyo, Japan. May 2, 1951. 1:30 AM.

The whirling sound began. They both clung to each other, both unstable. Benjamin tried to focus on what was ahead. From time to time he thought he could see an image of what was happening. But he couldn't for they were only there for an instant until they were gone. Then it all stopped. If it hadn't been Charles' cane they would have fallen to the ground. Benjamin heard a clock chime. It was half past one. But he saw they landed in the "business" part of town. It was not totally unfamiliar, he admitted years later.

"Charles?" The man was dumb. Benjamin, who was starting to feel more like Hawkeye every moment, shook him.

"I swore to myself I would never to come back here." Charles murmured. "I would never get even within a thousand miles of Korea."

Hawkeye's demeanor slipped in, and softly he said. "We all swore we wouldn't come back to Korea. But our grandkids need us. And I love Ben more than my hatred for Korea."

"If it wasn't for Korea we would've never met and our grandkids would've never met."

"Think of what would be different. Would you want us to never have met?" Hawkeye met his gaze. He knew his answer, he knew his own answer.

"I don't want to see my grandchild broken." Charles whispered hoarsely. "I don't want to remember seeing the light leave his eye when his fiancée is…taken from us."

"And I don't want my grandchild to be broken when he finds out his fiancée was…taken in by his own grandfather." Hawkeye looked up at Charles. "And this one we need to stop now."

A/N: Phew! That's the longest chapter ever. No more like this one! But hopefully this makes up for not posting for a month.


	26. Chapter 26

"What do you mean you didn't find him

"I hope Sarah is okay." Joan worked hard. Everything was harder here, no electrics, computers, no heart monitors, the IVs were glass, instead of sealed plastic. The floor was solely cement. The list went on. Not to mention she was trying to do it all with modern procedures. Luckily, either nurse didn't question what she did or just wasn't paying very much attention. "Suction and get this kid more blood."

"Joan, she'll be fine." Emerson said tersely. He too, was under pressure. And Joan couldn't stop worrying about Sarah. "Quit worrying about Sarah, and worry about your needle work."

Joan got annoyed. "You worry too much about your needle work. We've got more patients are you're taking up to much time."

"I do one thing at a time. I do it very well and then I move on." Emerson said in a very Charles-ish way.

"Nurse, gag his pie hole."

"Must we have this constant bickering?" Charles said angrily. "I need quiet."

"I don't usually intervene, but I if you guys, and lady, cannot work together nicely, don't say anything at all!" Colonel Potter's heated voice came through. There was silence for a few moments until Em took a deep breath. "Joan, Sarah will be fine. Besides its not like she's by herself, she's with Hawkeye. What could happen?"

_That's what I'm afraid of,_ thought BJ in his own mind.

0o0o0o0o

Hawkeye's mind was wired. The kisses they shared were searing. His partner wasn't dominant but demanded that they shared. His nerve endings were afire when she ran her fingers through his hair. Her breathing was heavy and shallow. His hands were on her hips over her pajamas bottoms, he wanted it.

"Sarah," Hawkeye whispered passionately, "Sarah."

A gasp unlike any of the other ones they had shared was elicited from the body in his arms. She sat up and pulled away from him quickly. A hand dashed for the light right next to the bed. Hawkeye watched her dazed and confused. She looked at herself, her pajamas on the floor and he in front of her. Slowly, like a dawn coming over the horizon Hawkeye reality sat on him.

He reached out for her. "BJ," She flinched at the hand that hadn't even reached her yet.

"BJ," She flew past him, her shoulder shaking. "BJ!" He said.

"Stay away from me!" She pulled out the pink dress she had been wearing and pulled it over her head.

"I'm so sorry." Hawkeye didn't even know what he was saying. "I didn't plan this. I didn't want to hurt you." He repeated himself. "I don't want to hurt you."

She was putting on Keds. He grabbed her arm and then her shoulders. "Where are you going?" Her face was scrunched up in pain. She wrenched herself away from him. He tried to grab her arm again.

"For the love of God, let go!" She nearly yelled. She slipped something on her wrist. She ran for the door, sobs echoing as she ran down the hall. Hawkeye swore. Pulling on a coat he ran after her. "BJ!"

He saw that the elevator was in just arriving on to his level. He ran for it hoping to catch BJ. She had taken the stairs. As soon as the doors opened he lurched forward. A cane was pressed across his chest. A voice said. "Damn, we're too late. I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this."

"Don't move, Benjamin Franklin Pierce." A man said. He was about Hawkeye's height, an elderly gentleman.

Hawkeye was distracted for a moment. "Do I know you?"

The two men chuckled. "In a way. But back to the matter at hand. Let her run."

Hawkeye felt indignation swell up. "Have you lost your mind? I-she-"

"It's her fault too. She was hurting, and you were there. Hard as that is to believe, its true."

"He's not going to believe you, he a think headed Pierce." A thick Bostonian accent made him double back. It was dark and he couldn't their faces.

"Get her things together. He's got the key." The leaner man pointed at him.

"How do you know-" Hawkeye started.

"Take me to the room." The man with cane pointed at him. The other stayed in the elevator, his face still partially hidden. There was a little ding of the bell, and the elevator descended.

Hawkeye was indignant. "How does he know where she is?"

The man closed his eyes for a moment. "Believe me he knows. He knows Brianna Jennifer much better than you do."

Hawkeye was momentarily distracted. "That's her name?"

"No, I'm just spewing out random names to engage your cerebrum. Of course it's her name." The man said impatiently. "Your _key_"

Hawkeye felt dazed. "I know you."

"Pierce, I think that is the brightest thing you have said all evening." He opened up the room. "Now, where are Brianna Jennifer's things?"

Hawkeye pointed to a duffel bag unceremoniously dumped in a corner. "Her new clothes are in the closet." He shook his head. "You're-you're, _Charles_!"

Charles stopped sorting through BJ's clothes. "Pierce, your flair for the obvious hasn't faded in my memory."

"The other man with you…" It hit Hawkeye like a ton of bricks. "That was me! What the hell are you and me doing here?"

"Trying to fix the past." Charles pulled out combat boots unlike any Hawkeye had ever seen and a uniform that had different patches on it the color of sand. He looked up at Hawkeye. "But we are…too late it seems."

Hawkeye's heart pounded. "You were trying to stop BJ and I…"

Charles closed his eyes for a moment. "Imagine, I know this is hard, that you are a grandfather. And your grandson is engaged to this lovely girl. Now she is under the belief that he is dead and she sleeps with another man, who incidentally looks just like your grandson because she is so lonely, jeopardizing the happiness she would have your grandson; and you are partly responsible for. What would you do?"

Guilt came over Hawkeye in waves. BJ was in a fragile state. Worse, Charles was probably right, BJ was tipsy enough for her judgment to be impaired and it would be harder to forget that he wasn't Ben. Then a truth hit him like a jeep. "John- I mean Ben is a-alive?"

Charles finally finding everything he needed stood up and gave a nod in assent. "Let's go, Brianna Jennifer has a date with the future."

0o0o0o0o0o0

She was running. But the pain wouldn't shake off. It wouldn't leave her alone. Tears of shame and distress kept coming. If she had thought about it she would have realized she didn't know where her feet were taking her. But as the tears kept coming and replays of what had happened kept going over and over in her head she would feel a sprout of energy and keep running.

After a while, she collapsed. On the edge of the sidewalk, she sat her shoulders heaving controllably. Memories came after one after another. Ben and hers first kiss the letters while they were friends, when the bike ride they went on together through the park, and they realized they wanted more than to be friends. The engagement, the deployment to Iraq, this mess, going back in time it all was coming back. Images, snapshots of her life went whirling around her brain. And now this… God, she was a terrible person.

A length of time went by, who know how long, but a measure of control returned to her wretched body. What would she do now? The question hung suspended in air? She looked at her hands when something caught her eye. Her time traveler, it hung limply on her wrist. It was still ticking. Forty-five days, seventeen hours, and eleven seconds. That's how long she had been here. More than ever, she wanted to go home. She looked at the device.

"Don't do it." She jumped. She turned around to see an elderly man staring at her, dimly lit by a lamp far about their heads. He sat down next to her. "Uncle Hawkeye?" Her voice trembled. The answer she got was arms wrapped around her. To be hugged seemed just right. She remembered that Uncle Hawkeye, like Grandpa, had always had a knack for knowing what she needed. Most grandparents seemed to just know. For a moment, she was a scared child once again in a loving adult's arms. Then, she remembered that this was the same person who had been holding her in his arms not to long ago. She broke the embrace.

"I was an idiot, Brianna." The man said softly. "I didn't realize fully all the things that were in jeopardy. I never understood the love I would eventually have for a grandchild. You don't know how I wished it back. I came back to stop it, but it seems I'm too late.

"But its my fault too." BJ couldn't get past this. "And I have hurt, or am hurting or- I don't know anymore. I don't even know how you are here in Korea." She looked away tears brimming in her eyes.

"Brianna look at me." She forced herself to look into the blue eyes that still shone even through the night. "Yes, it's your fault to, but you were lonely, you needed someone, you were a bit tipsy, and there was someone, very much like Ben standing next to you; wanting you very much."

"I knew it wasn't Ben. I can't pass it off like that." Brianna hated herself. "I knew it was Hawkeye, but I-I"

"I know" Uncle Hawkeye held her. In an age old motion in they rocked back and forth. To the casual eye it might have been an odd thing to do, in Tokyo, sitting the curb of an empty street; but to BJ it was what she needed. Finally she quieted down, and she sat up on her own. "Now what?" She asked.

Hawkeye frowned for a moment. "Where is Charles? I was hoping he'd be here to help me explain this." He took a deep breath. "Brianna, remember that piece of paper that Joan gave you on the day you left for here?"

BJ was puzzled. "Yeah, what about it?"

"You didn't read it."

"No"

"Well, it was kind of important that you read it."

"How do you know that Joan gave me a note?" BJ demanded, her heart pounding. "And what was in it."

"When Ben died, did you ever see the body?" He asked delicately.

BJ didn't see where this was going. "No"

"Did you ever get a telegram?"

"No, but I got a letter-from Ben himself." She explained more to herself than to him. "His buddies they said-"

"Did they see him?" Uncle Hawkeye was looking like he was really hoping it would dawn on her. A hope seemed to bubble in her chest, she grasped his arm painfully.

"What are you saying?"

At that moment Charles and the young Hawkeye pulled up in a jeep. Charles showed her quietly a uniform, and ID, and a note.

0o0o0o0o0

A young woman was upset. She was crying and yelling at the nurse, trying to pull rank, and near hysterical. The chaplain hurried over to her, he was done with his rounds with the critically wounded, welcoming them to Germany, and if there was anything they needed. Today he brought them clothes; explaining that there had been drive across the European bases for clothes because when the soldiers came to the hospital they literally had nothing. Sometimes, doctors permitting, he brought them edible goodies, or just care packages from the USO. Lieutenant Reehl decided step in.

"Captain, can I help you? I'm Chaplain Reehl."

The tearful woman looked at him. "My fiancé, they told me he was here. I had been misinformed for a several days that he was dead, until I got word otherwise. I want to see him and see what condition he's in. I am a surgeon and was in northern Iraq when he was wounded in Baghdad. Please," She started sobbing again. "let me see him."

Comprehension dawned on him. "You're BJ?"

The woman looked up. "How do you my name?"

He took her by the hand. "BJ, may I call you BJ?" At her nod he continued. "The nurses that travel with Benjamin to here said he was out of his head, calling for you. They had done emergency surgery in Baghdad until he could get here. He was very critically wounded, and his fever spiked. One nurse, a friend on mine, told me he started speaking to her as if she was you. He was begging you not to ever leave him again."

BJ paled. "Please let me see him, that nurse over there won't let me see him."

The chaplain clasped her hands into his and said firmly, "Let me see what I can do."

0o0o0o0o0o0

Her heart stopped when she saw Ben. For a moment she was stock-still and then made a sprint to his bed. He wasn't alone in his ward. There were other, but she paid them no attention. She looked at the tubes going through his nose and diagnosed his situation. She read the report next to him, and found that he had yet to be stable. She picked up the hand that wasn't connected to an IV.

For a long time she didn't say anything. Then she finally spoke aloud. "They told me you were dead, you know. I even got the letter you had saved for me if you ever died. When I saw your letter, it seemed to seal the truth. I barely got out of bed for a week. I felt like I had died with you." It all came gushing out along with tears. She explained everything that had happened, until that night. She told him of what Joan had done, and how she had tried to move on.

"Ma'am?" A corporal came in when she had lapsed into silence once again. She looked up. The corporal held out an envelope. "This came with his personal belongings, and it's addressed to you."

Her hands shaking she took the letter. "Thank you, corporal." He seemed to take his cue and with drawled. She opened the letter.

Brianna,

If you are receiving this letter, then I have failed at trying to change the past. I had been determined not to end up here. You see I read the diary before Charles had the chance to burn the pages. I knew this might happen, but you were right when I had the chance to save another's life and defend my country I would. I suppose I am a hypocrite.

I also know you will think I am dead for a week. But there is probably something more heavily weighing on your mind. My grandfather didn't exactly state what happened, but I have a feeling of what did. At first, I was angry, and hated you. The real thing. But when I saw you again, I couldn't. I love you too much. I couldn't hate you. You were lonely, tipsy and there was someone there who cared for you too. I can't blame you for that.

There is something I have to ask you to do for me, you must go back. Not only for your sake, but for mine. They will be coming, and they are out to kill us and our families as well as the whole 4077th.

I love you always,

Ben

She didn't have to be told that he died. She was there with him, and held on to him. He never did wake up.

0o0o0o0o

They snuck into camp. These Imperialists Dogs had no idea what security meant. They knew what to look for. They had been given her picture to study. She was tall, blonde, with brown eyes. They had been warned that her appearance may be altered.

They spied her. Silently they darted and grabbed her from behind. She started to scream, but the one of them slapped a hand over her mouth. But it was too late. People had heard the scream.

0o0o0o0o0o

Joan and Em rushed outside. "Margaret!" Joan yelled. She quickly assessed the situation. Joan ran towards Margaret. She pulled out her fists and tensed for action. Her fist made contact with one person. She tore the gun out of someone else's hands. She fought in a very a style she learned on the streets of Boston. Weave in, weave out. Attack all sides, attack like it was your last. Don't waste strokes. Time is precious. In a distant memory, she remembered outrunning the gangs, and wrestling her older brothers. She remembered the old feeling of walling herself up emotionally and physically and the strategy that the best defense was a good offense.

Em had pulled Margaret out to safety. Corpsmen were running and joining the fight. A gun fired momentarily making Joan lose her concentration. It was enough. She felt something hit her back of the head and then darkness surrounded her.

0o0o0o0o0

"Let me go!" Em hollered. "Joan!" His arms were pinned back behind him. Father Mulcahy was refusing to let go.

"Son, you'll only get yourself killed."

"My fiancée, is out there!" Em struggled harder. "Let me go!"

"Charles Emerson Winchester the Fifth, stop struggling." A voice came from behind him.

An elderly gentleman stood behind him. The voice made Em stop struggling. Hesitantly, Father Mulcahy let go. "Granddad, they took Joan. Sir, Joan and I-"

The man held up a hand. "I know, but you're going to have to believe that it's too late."

"They need you here. The terrorists will be here soon, and Brianna Jennifer cannot fight them alone. Joan knew the risks. I-I was too late to help change any of this."

0o0o0o0o

"Welcome to hell." Another human being said without humor. "I would've have thought these bastards wouldn't sink as low as takin' women captive."

Joan tried to focus. Her head hurt terribly. "Where am I?"

"Prison camp. You must be pretty important if they brought you here. You're a POW now. They've been waitin' around for you to wake up. I guess they want information from you." He clutched her forearm. "Don't tell them anything."

"I'm gonna get outta here. Won't be here long enough to answer their questions." The man gave a dry laugh. "How do go on planning that?"

She ignored his question. "How close are we to other prisoners?"

The man shrugged. "I don't actually know. We don't get to see each other. I assume close 'cause when I knock on the wall they can here me. I pass messages that way."

"Morse." Joan was interested. "Can you relay a message for me?"

"What do have in mind missy?"

"An escape plan."

0o0o0o0

"These nincompoops! They wouldn't know the difference between Marilyn Monroe and Eisenhower."

"We're going after ourselves this time. No mistakes. No fouls ups."


	27. Chapter 27 The End

A/N: I haven't posted in almost a year. And I practically abandoned this fic, until I received a message from on the readers about a month or so ago. I feel like you ought to know the ending I was planning for this, even though I never wrote it down on paper on in the computer.

Joan McIntyre never escapes the prisoners' camp. She, like a true story I heard once, enables all the other prisoners to escape, overpowered some of the guards, and got all the POWs into a couple of trucks. She stayed behind with a machine gun to hold off the North Koreans. She was shot several times, until she finally fell lifeless. She told her cellmates to give word to MASH 4077 what happened to her.

Sarah/BJ, hurries back to the 4077 with the elderly MASH people, and the Hawkeye. The elderly Hawkeye was obsessed with the Back to The Future series and is convinced if he looks at the younger version of himself they will be destroyed. Hawkeye and Sarah don't know what to say to each other.

Em is with Charles, absolutely distraught with worry about Joan. Unknown to him, Joan is dead. Margaret's disappearance has just been noticed when she didn't show up for her shift. Margaret had been questioned for answers brutally, but of course, she didn't know any. Realizing she is not the one, but unable to let her go, they keep her captive, unwilling to kill her for fear of ramifications of the future. Hawkeye and Sarah appear alone into the camp, admist the chaos of looking for Margaret.

During all this hustle and bustle what they don't notice is that the terrorists have slipped into the camp. A bunch of North Koreans surround the camp, working for the terrorist, making a perimeter. Em, with Radar slips out to use Sarah's emergency button to make a distress call to the future. Meanwhile, the terrorists put a gun to Sarah's head, hitting her enough to see is she'll break and tell them where the information they want is. She doesn't break. Outraged, they beat her, for causing them so much trouble. When Hawkeye and the others make a move to save her, Sarah begs them not to, so the past/future will not change. Finally realizing she won't break, they figure out which are BJ and Hawkeye and tell her she must make a choice. She must either save her grandparent and her own future, or Ben's grandfather and his future. She is about to make her decision when the elderly MASH attempt to bust on the scene, and help from the future arrives.

Every MASH who had children (where Margaret comes to realize she'll never be married again and have children, but it is slipped she makes general), attacks the North Koreans and in admist the chaos, the terrorist seeks out Sarah (who is hurt and bleeding already), and just is about to shoot her in the heart, he misfires and hits her in the stomach, because from behind him, a cloaked figure shoots him. She doesn't catch his face, although BJ does as he rushed to her side, and sees an older version of himself looking back, before disappearing. The elderly Charles catches a moment with Em to tell him, that he had wanted Joan to be his granddaughter in law very much, and extends his condolences.

The future generation disappears except for Em and Sarah who cannot be moved, for fear of more loss of blood. Em, who is unhurt, for the most part, tries to patch up Sarah, as the other doctors try to put everyone else back together, including the North Koreans, who are now POWs. Em lets out the truth to the officers (aka medical staff), of what truly went on so they now deserve the truth. Everyone goes through there own personal reflections of the future generation they saw and what had happened, and what would. Em is hollow from the loss of Joan. He realizes if he doesn't save Sarah, all of his closest friends will be gone. He wishes he had more of the technology to save Sarah, but it was up to Sarah to pull herself through.

Sarah goes through an experience while unconscious. She sees her grandfather as she remembers him, and he tells her that it wasn't her time to leave this earth. They have a conversation about living on for the need of others. Sarah never figures out if this conversation was real or imagined. She also dreams of an old Indian woman who says she has fulfilled her promise by protecting three generations of Hunnicut women, and that she'll live. She here drums and Indian calls throughout her sleep, while the medical staff watches her fever spike and she grows restless. BJ, also dreams of the Indian woman.

She finally awakes to find BJ watching her silently by her side. She smiles and he grabs her hand, and she falls back to sleep. Hawkeye, who had also watched her sleep, is haunted by what happened or almost happened in Tokyo. He is relieved she is alive, and heartbroken. Em is also relieved to see her awake.

When she is well enough to leave, she says good bye to everyone and has a special moment with Hawkeye, trying to make the best of the separation. "It was never meant to be." And then kisses him once and leaves. In arms with Em, she goes back to the future. She leaves BJ her own time traveling machine.

Three years later, on the eve of her wedding to Emerson, she takes his time traveling device and transports herself to six months after her grandparents came home from the war. She does this because she finds her picture of Ben disappearing. She goes to Crabapple, storms in Hawkeye's bedroom, tells him to get the hell out of bed. She forces him to go to an interview. Then she picks him out an outfit for the church's picnic on Sunday, making him promise he'll go. She then goes to Mill Valley, and makes an appointment to see Dr. Hunnicutt. BJ first thinks it is his wife, until she speaks. She tells him, all is well with her and she'll be married tomorrow. She wishes him happiness, gives him one last hug and walks away. She whispers to the wind that she loves him.

The End


End file.
